Magnesium Predicts High-Grade Prostate Cancer and a Poorer Prognosis among Black and White Men
Abstract
Black men have a higher risk of being diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer and higher prostate cancer mortality compared to white men. Several studies, including our analyses, have also found black men have lower blood magnesium levels. As low magnesium levels increase inflammation, and prostate cancer is strongly associated with prostate tissue inflammation, the purpose of this study is test the idea that magnesium deficiency may explain why black men are more often diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer or have a poorer prognosis. Magnesium is an essential nutrient critical in maintaining normal muscle and heart function, a healthy immune system, and helps to keep bones strong. Magnesium supplementation is increasingly used to manage hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes (all conditions more common among black men) and is being tested for the prevention of colorectal cancer and lymphoma. The dominant sources of magnesium are dietary, with high levels found in spinach, whole grains, beans, dairy foods, nuts, and certain fish. Unfortunately, recent dietary surveys found that most U.S. adults have magnesium intake below the U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance. Furthermore, several studies including our own research find that black adults have lower dietary magnesium intake and lower blood magnesium levels than comparable white adults. This difference in magnesium between blacks and whites has raised concern that differences in cardiovascular disease and diabetes between blacks and whites may, at least in part, be caused by differences in magnesium levels. Because magnesium can affect immune system activity related to chronic inflammation, and chronic inflammation is felt to be a risk factor for prostate cancer, we conducted the first study to determine if prostate cancer was associated with blood magnesium levels. We found that men (90% white in this sample) with lower magnesium levels had a significantly greater risk for high-grade prostate cancer. This suggests lower magnesium levels may provide a biomarker of prostate cancer risk, and magnesium may be a modifiable factor for prostate cancer prevention and treatment. However, this prior study was not designed to determine whether racial differences in magnesium levels explained the racial disparities in prostate cancer, provides no insight to mechanism, and requires additional validation before undertaking clinical trials aimed at magnesium supplementation. To address these gaps, we propose a series of new studies involving several large medical centers (Vanderbilt, Duke, Durham VA) to enroll a sufficient number of black and white prostate cancer patients for analysis. Our first study will determine if low levels of blood magnesium are associated with prostate cancer, and especially high-grade prostate cancer, and if so, if this association is stronger among black men compared to white men perhaps because black men have lower magnesium levels compared to white men. We next prospectively follow a group of black and white prostate cancer patients after prostate cancer surgery and see if blood magnesium levels predict prostate cancer recurrence. Our third study investigates the impact of magnesium levels on prostate tissue inflammation levels and cell survival among black and white men. This will allow us to see if blood magnesium impacts the immune response in the prostate and to translate our findings to interventions to reduce the risk of poor prostate cancer outcomes. These studies will provide the first investigation of magnesium and race differences in prostate cancer. Our results will tell us if magnesium contributes to race differences in prostate cancer aggressiveness and prognosis following surgery and whether the mechanism involves inflammation and cell cycle regulation in prostate tissue. If our ideas are correct, magnesium levels will provide a biomarker in black or white men to better estimate the levels of inflammation in the pro
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Apr 04, 2016
- Source ID
- W81XWH1510259
Entities
People
- Jay Fowke
Organizations
- United States Army
- Vanderbilt University