Men who underwent a vasectomy have an increased risk of developing aggressive prostate cancer. This is evidenced by the results of a new study conducted in the US.
For this study, Harvard researchers analyzed the data of 49,400 American men who were observed for 24 years, beginning in 1986. During this time, there were 6,023 cases of prostate cancer, and 811 cancer-related deaths.
Those 25% of the men participating in the study who underwent a vasectomy had a 10% greater risk of developing prostate cancer. Such figures can be found in the online journal Journal of Clinical Oncology.
The vasectomy, according to these results, was not associated with the risk of low-aggressive prostate tumors, but increased the risk of aggressive prostate cancer by 20% and the risk of death from prostate cancer by 19%.
Even among men who regularly tested for prostate-specific antigen (PSA), men after vasectomy were significantly more likely to die from prostate cancer. The earlier a man had a vasectomy, the stronger this connection was.
However, the absolute risk of developing lethal prostate cancer remained small - 16 cases per 1,000 men.
"This study is a continuation of our work on the connection of vasectomy and prostate cancer, which was published in 1993. Now it is 19 additional years of observation and 10 times more cases of the disease. The results support the hypothesis that vasectomy is associated with an increased risk of aggressive and lethal prostate cancer, "co-author of the study Lorelei Mucci, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, said in a university news release.
About 15% of men in the US undergo a vasectomy. At the same time, prostate cancer remains the second leading cause of death for American men, although most patients with this type of cancer do not die from it.
"The decision to make a vasectomy - a popular procedure for family planning - is purely personal, but the patient should carefully discuss all the risks of this procedure with his doctor," says co-author Kathryn Wilson, a teacher in the epidemiology department, in a news release.
Dr. Louis Kavoussi, head of the Department of Urology at the North Shore-LIJ Health System Hospital in New Hyde Park, said: "I would be cautious with applying these results in clinical practice, at least until. This is not the case when cigarette smoke affects many people and we know that it causes lung cancer. This is a small increase in the risk of prostate cancer, which we see in a limited group of men.
I think that more research should be done to clarify this issue ".
Dr. Aaron Katz, chief urologist at the Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola (New York), suggests that men after a vasectomy could simply be screened more often by their doctor, as a result of which they were more likely to be diagnosed than in the general population.
Researchers thank for the help in conducting the study of the National Cancer Institute of the United States.
medbe. en.