Abstract

A group of 114 Irish patients with primary adenocarcinoma of the large bowel had significantly lower serum cholesterol concentrations than an age and sex matched group drawn from the general population. The hypocholesterolaemiac trait was manifest in male and female patients. Rigorous control procedures established that it was neither an artefact of nutritional compromise nor of preoperative bowel preparatory protocols. The data suggested that the appreciable hypocholesterolaemia observed was not influenced by the pathological stage or degree of differentiation of the tumour.