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Any info on frequency of prostate cancer among gay population?
This is a weird question I am sure, but I know there is increased frequency among African Americans (don't know if applies to all of African descent or just those in the US)perhaps in relationship to Vitamin D. I am wondering if anyone has looked at connection between male balding and prostate cancer or frequency of prostate cancer among members of the gay population. The first group because one of the effects of shutting down testosterone is scalp hair growth. Sometimes thinking about the intellectual questions helps to take my mind off the life and death effects on my husband.
Re: Any info on frequency of prostate cancer among gay population?
Jo,
Regarding the higher frequency of prostate cancer in AfricanAmericans, I believe that the most likely reason is financial rather than genetic. AfricanAmericans tend to be in the lower financial echelons of society with poorer diets, less access to good medical care and so on. I think it is more than a coincidence that the people just one rung up in the financial strata, LatinAmericans, have an incidence somewhere between the African-Americans and the White men.
Of course it is very to prove any of this and there is little point in looking to the African countries for any further information on genetic disposition. Prostate cancer is essentially a disease of old men. More than 90% of the men diagnosed are over 70 years of age in the US. Very few men in Africa live to that age and in any event there are much more urgent medical issues to deal with, given that even in societies like ours only about 3% of men actually die from prostate cancer.
On baldness, a Turkish study last year had this to say:
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INTRODUCTION: We evaluated the pattern of baldness and serum androgen levels in patients with benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate cancer. BPH, prostate cancer and androgenic alopecia (AA) were somehow androgen dependent and affect large population of elderly men. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A total of 152 patients, 108 patients with BPH and 44 patients with prostate cancer were included in the study. We measured serum total, free and bioavailable testosterone, FSH, LH, prolactin, estradiol, albumin and SHBG levels. Baldness classification was based on Norwood's classification and we categorised baldness as vertex and frontal baldness. RESULT: The frequency of AA in BPH and prostate cancer groups were not different. We looked for some correlation between the two groups with respect to AA and hormone levels. We did not find any correlation between AA and total testosterone, free testosterone, bioavailable testosterone or SHBG levels in both groups. CONCLUSION: This prospective study with selected small group of patients showed that there is no difference of male pattern baldness in BPH and prostate cancer patients and also there is no correlation between pattern of baldness and serum androgen levels.
As to gay men, if you search around you might find some items of interest, but nothing that indicates a higher incidence in this population.
One small study in 1987 said this:
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A case-control study of a number of factors of possible etiologic significance for prostatic cancer was conducted in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. The focus was primarily on sexual factors. Two hundred and fifty incident cases of prostatic cancer, 238 hospital controls, and 240 neighborhood controls were included. Controls were matched to cases on age, sex, and race. Cases were somewhat more educated than controls. An association was found between prostatic cancer and a history of venereal disease in their sexual partners: odds ratio (OR) = 2.71, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.14 to 6.46 and OR = 2.09, 95% CI = 1.02 to 4.29 for hospital and neighborhood controls, respectively. Cases had more sexual experiences with prostitutes, although their overall lifetime frequency of sexual intercourse with all partners was somewhat lower. Cases also reported more homosexual partners than controls. The results from the study lend some support to an infectious hypothesis for prostatic cancer. The lower frequency of sexual intercourse (OR = .54, 95% CI = .34 to .83 and OR = .68, 95% CI = .47 to 1.01 for hospital and neighborhood controls, respectively) is also noteworthy and may be indicative of a hormonal difference related to sexual interest or drive.
Another, in 2001 had this to say:
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A population-based case-control study of prostate cancer was performed in King County, Washington, in White men and Black men aged 40–64 years, between 1993 and 1996. Incident prostate cancer cases (n = 753) were identified from the Seattle-Puget Sound Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) cancer registry. Controls (n = 703) were identified through random digit dialing and were frequency matched to cases on age. Sexual behavior, medical history, and other potential prostate cancer risk factors were ascertained through an in-person interview. There was no relation between sexual orientation and prostate cancer, although the number of men who had sex with men was small. Risk estimates increased directly with the lifetime number of female sexual partners (trend p < 0.001) but not with male partners (trend p = 0.62). Risk also increased with decreasing age at first intercourse, but this effect disappeared after adjusting for the number of female partners. Prior infection with gonorrhea was positively associated with risk (odds ratio = 1.50; 95% confidence interval: 1.0, 2.2), but no effect was seen among men with other sexually transmitted diseases. No relation between lifetime frequency of sexual intercourse and risk of prostate cancer was apparent. These findings are consistent with previous studies that support an infectious etiology for prostate cancer.
All the best
