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Male pattern baldness in relation to prostate cancer risks: an analysis in the VITamins and lifestyle (VITAL) cohort study.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Male pattern baldness and prostate cancer may share common pathophysiological mechanisms in terms of advancing age, heritability, and endogenous hormones. Results from previous epidemiologic studies are inconsistent. Therefore, we investigated the association of prostate cancer risks with male pattern baldness at age 30 years, age 45 years, and baseline (median age?=?60.5 years) in the VITamins And Lifestyle (VITAL) cohort study. METHODS:We included 32,583 men who were aged 50-76 years and without prior cancer diagnosis (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) at the start of follow-up. First primary incident prostate cancers were ascertained via linkage to the western Washington Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were estimated using Cox proportional hazards regressions with adjustment for potential confounders. RESULTS:During follow-up (median?=?9 years), 2,306 incident prostate cancers were diagnosed. Male pattern baldness at age 30 years, age 45 years, and baseline were not statistically significantly associated with overall or subtypes of prostate cancer. CONCLUSION:This study did not provide support for the hypothesis that male pattern baldness may be a marker for subsequent prostate cancer. Previous evidence indicates that a distinct class of frontal with vertex balding may be associated with increased risk of aggressive prostate cancer, but all such balding classes were captured as a single exposure category by the VITAL cohort questionnaire. Prostate 75:415-423, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

SUBMITTER: Zhou CK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4293210 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Male pattern baldness in relation to prostate cancer risks: an analysis in the VITamins and lifestyle (VITAL) cohort study.

Zhou Cindy Ke CK Littman Alyson J AJ Levine Paul H PH Hoffman Heather J HJ Cleary Sean D SD White Emily E Cook Michael B MB

The Prostate 20141209 4

<h4>Background</h4>Male pattern baldness and prostate cancer may share common pathophysiological mechanisms in terms of advancing age, heritability, and endogenous hormones. Results from previous epidemiologic studies are inconsistent. Therefore, we investigated the association of prostate cancer risks with male pattern baldness at age 30 years, age 45 years, and baseline (median age = 60.5 years) in the VITamins And Lifestyle (VITAL) cohort study.<h4>Methods</h4>We included 32,583 men who were ...[more]

PMID: 25492530

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Prospective cohort studies of circulating sex steroid hormones and prostate cancer risk have not provided a consistent association, despite evidence from animal and clinical studies. However, studies using male pattern baldness as a proxy of early-life or cumulative androgen exposure have reported significant associations with aggressive and fatal prostate cancer risk. Given that androgens underlie the development of patterned hair loss and chest hair, we assessed whether these two dermatological characteristics were associated with circulating and intraprostatic concentrations of sex steroid hormones among men diagnosed with localized prostate cancer. METHODS:We included 248 prostate cancer patients from the NCI Prostate Tissue Study, who answered surveys and provided a pre-treatment blood sample as well as fresh frozen adjacent normal prostate tissue. Male pattern baldness and chest hair density were assessed by trained nurses before surgery. General linear models estimated geometric means and 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs) of each hormone variable by dermatological phenotype with adjustment for potential confounding variables. Subgroup analyses were performed by Gleason score (<7 vs ?7) and race (European American vs. African American). RESULTS:We found strong positive associations of balding status with serum testosterone, dihydrotestosterone (DHT), estradiol, and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), and a weak association with elevated intraprostatic testosterone. Conversely, neither circulating nor intraprostatic sex hormones were statistically significantly associated with chest hair density. Age-adjusted correlation between binary balding status and three-level chest hair density was weak (r?=?0.05). There was little evidence to suggest that Gleason score or race modified these associations. CONCLUSIONS:This study provides evidence that balding status assessed at a mean age of 60 years may serve as a clinical marker for circulating sex hormone concentrations. The weak-to-null associations between balding status and intraprostatic sex hormones reaffirm differences in organ-specific sex hormone metabolism, implying that other sex steroid hormone-related factors (eg, androgen receptor) play important roles in organ-specific androgenic actions, and that other overlapping pathways may be involved in associations between the two complex conditions.

Dataset Information

Male pattern baldness in relation to prostate cancer risks: an analysis in the VITamins and lifestyle (VITAL) cohort study.

Publications

Male pattern baldness in relation to prostate cancer risks: an analysis in the VITamins and lifestyle (VITAL) cohort study.

Similar Datasets

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