Two new studies suggest that low blood cholesterol levels reduce the risk of not just heart disease but also cancer.

Old fears regarding low cholesterol related to an increased risk of cancer have been eased out due to these new findings, said Dr. Demetrius Albanes a senior investigator at the U.S. National Cancer Institute, and an author of one of two reports in the November issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

Eric Jacobs, strategic director of pharmacoepidemiology at the American Cancer Society, who wrote an accompanying editorial said, "These results should help dispel any lingering thoughts that low cholesterol may help cause cancer."

Both the reasons for fears that low cholesterol levels raised the risk of cancer and the reason why those fears were unjustified can be seen in data from a study that has followed more than 29,000 Finnish men for a period of 18 years.

Another data from a study on more than 5,500 men enrolled in the Prostate cancer Prevention Trial showed that those with cholesterol levels below 200 had a 59 percent lower risk of developing the most dangerous form of that cancer, according to a second report in the same issue of the journal.

Study leader Elizabeth Platz, co-director of the cancer prevention and control program at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center said, “Cholesterol levels had no significant effect on the overall incidence of prostate cancer in the study.”