A new study published online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, suggests that circumcision before a male’s first sexual intercourse can hinder infection and inflammation and may help protect against prostate cancer.
Research suggests that sexually transmitted infections may contribute to the development of prostate cancer. Plus, circumcision can prevent certain sexually transmitted infections. Therefore, lead author Jonathan L. Wright, MD, an affiliate investigator in the Hutchinson Center’s Public Health Sciences Division, and his colleagues set out to test whether circumcision protects against the development of some cases of prostate cancer.
Information from 3399 men (1754 with prostate cancer and 1645 without) was analyzed for the study. Men who had been circumcised before their first sexual intercourse were 15% less likely to develop prostate cancer than uncircumcised men. More specifically, men circumcised before their first sexual intercourse had an 18% reduced risk for developing more aggressive prostate cancer and a 12% reduced risk for developing less aggressive prostate cancer.
“These data are in line with an infectious/inflammatory pathway which may be involved in the risk of prostate cancer in some men,” said Dr Wright, who is also an assistant professor of urology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. “Although observational only, these data suggest a biologically plausible mechanism through which circumcision may decrease the risk of prostate cancer. Future research of this relationship is warranted,” he added.
Source: Wiley.
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