RESEARCHERS have strengthened the link between high cholesterol levels and prostate cancer, it was announced today.

In a study that firms up earlier evidence, experts in Italy said men with high cholesterol were about twice as likely to develop the cancer.

The team, from the Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri in Milan, also found a link between gallstones and developing prostate cancer.

Cancer charities said the news reflected the importance of following a healthy diet.

In the study, published online today in Annals of Oncology, the experts used data from 1991 and 2002 involving 1,294 men aged 75 and under with prostate cancer.

They asked the men questions about their health and then compared the answers to those from a "control" group of 1,451 men with non-cancerous illnesses.

Dr Francesca Bravi, lead author of the study, said men with prostate cancer were around 50% more likely to have had high cholesterol levels.