Serum cholesterol and large bowel cancer. A case-control study.

A case-control study of the relationship of serum cholesterol to large bowel cancer incidence was performed for 245 members of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in northern California. Five controls were obtained for each case, matched for age, sex, race, and time of examination. The mean serum cholesterol levels of cases were not significantly different from those of controls for all colorectal cancers, right-sided colon cancers, and left-sided colon cancers. Analysis by quartiles of serum cholesterol level suggested neither a direct nor an inverse relationship between serum cholesterol and large bowel cancer, and there was no evidence of a threshold value below which the risk of cancer increased. The study did not support the findings from other studies of an inverse relationship between serum cholesterol and large bowel cancer.