Two New Risk Indicators For Prostate Cancer Revealed

Today, at the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress, two new risk indicators for prostate cancer will be revealed.

The investigation, led by Dr David Orsted at the Copenhagen University Hospital, Herlev, reveals that men who are diagnosed with benign prostate enlargement have a higher risk of developing and dying from prostate cancer. The second investigation reveals that the long-term risk of healthy men developing and dying from this disease can be predicted by monitoring prostate-specific antigen levels. As a result these investigations could lead to more efficient and cost-effective screening for prostate cancer, with reductions in over-diagnosis and unnecessary treatment.

In Europe each year, more than 70,000 men die from prostate cancer according to European Cancer Observatory statistics. Prostate cancer shares common features with benign enlargement of the prostate gland (benign prostatic hyperplasia). In both conditions, the growth of the gland is dependent on hormone levels, and both prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia respond to anti-androgen treatment, however, up till now it was not believed that benign prostatic hyperplasia was a precursor to tumor development. The investigators studies the connection between the two conditions by analyzing data from five national registries, on a total of 3,009,258 men from Denmark.

53,315 diagnoses of prostate cancer and 25,459 cases of death due to the disease, were included in the sample. Between the years 1980 and 2006, clinical benign prostatic hyperplasia was concluded by records of men hospitalized (187,591) and/or if they underwent surgery for the condition (77,698 men), as well as the use of certain medications suggested for the condition between the years 1995 and 2006 (143,365 and 47,465 men respectively for the two treatments). The reference group consisted of men without benign prostate hyperplasia.

Over the 27 years, they discovered that clinical benign prostate hyperplasia was connected to a two to three times increased risk of men developing prostate cancer, and a two to eight times increased risk from dying from the disease.

Investigation team member Dr. Stig Bojesen will explain to the congress:

"Benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostate cancer and the most common prostatic conditions with a large number of incident and prevalent cases each year. A possible association has been debated for several years but previous studies have generated ambiguous results."

Further investigations are required to find out if benign prostate enlargement could be a potential cause of prostate cancer, but given the large number of individuals affected, the results already have important implications. Dr. Bojesen says:

"The possible clinical implication of our study might be that physicians treating men with benign prostatic hyperplasia should follow these men carefully, to ensure early diagnosis and treatment of a possible prostate cancer, thereby enhancing the chance of curative treatment. However, our study does not allow us to suggest the optimal surveillance program for these men. This question should be addressed in future studies."