Abstract 793: Cardiometabolic risk factors among Puerto Rican men with prostate cancer
Authors: Valeria Torres Matos, Katherine Carrero Figueroa, Noemi Santiago, Julie Dutil, William Roman Torreguitart, Carlos Joel Diaz Osterman
Journal: Cancer Research (2025)

Abstract Background: Cardiovascular and metabolic disorders are significant contributors to morbidity and mortality among men with prostate cancer. However, few studies characterize the association between cardiometabolic comorbidities and tumor risk in the post-operative space among high-risk groups. Like African American men, Puerto Rican men have a higher risk of developing and dying from prostate cancer than other racial and ethnic groups in the United States. As cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors are highly prevalent in Puerto Rico, we proposed to investigate coordinated risk evaluation of cardiometabolic and oncologic risk in this population. We hypothesized that a subset of cardiometabolic risk factors consistently correlate with clinically defined aggressive disease. Methods: The Puerto Rico Urology Group (PRUG) is the largest group urology practice in Puerto Rico. It currently consists of ten urologists serving the Western, Southern, Central, and Metropolitan regions of Puerto Rico including the island municipalities of Vieques and Culebra. Our cohort (n=388) of patients underwent robotic assisted radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer between 2015 and 2022. Clinical data were extracted from consented patients’ electronic health records with appropriate IRB approval (Ponce Research Institute IRB no. 2210121134, University of Puerto Rico Comprehensive Cancer Center IRB no. 2023-08-111). Post-surgical cancer of the prostate risk assessment (CAPRA-S) was used to stratify tumors and cardiometabolic risk factors were evaluated across tumor risk strata. Results: The majority of study participants had low-risk tumors (238/388, 61.3%), with intermediate tumors accounting for 106/388 (27.3%), and high-risk tumors accounting for 44/388 (11.3%). Higher CAPRA-S score was significantly associated with greater tumor mass (p&amp;lt;0.001), presence of perineural invasion (p&amp;lt;0.001), and presence of hyperlipidemia (p&amp;lt;0.001). Conclusion: The Puerto Rican population represents the second largest Hispanic/Latino subgroup in the United States and has disproportionately high rates of prostate cancer and cardiometabolic comorbidity. Our preliminary findings indicate that the coordinated evaluation of cancer risk in the context of high-risk disease may provide additional insights for clinicians managing prostate cancer among populations with high prevalence of these chronic diseases. These findings provide insights for ongoing studies to evaluate large, multi-institutional cohorts and identify molecular indicators of cardiometabolic risk predictive of prostate cancer aggressiveness among diverse populations. Acknowledgements: This study was supported by funding from the Puerto Rico IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (PR-INBRE, grant no. 2P20GM103475-21), awarded to C.J.D.O. through the Developmental Research Projects Program. Citation Format: Valeria Torres Matos, Katherine Carrero Figueroa, Noemi Santiago, Julie Dutil, William Roman Torreguitart, Carlos Joel Diaz Osterman. Cardiometabolic risk factors among Puerto Rican men with prostate cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2025; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2025 Apr 25-30; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2025;85(8_Suppl_1):Abstract nr 793.