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Abstract

Evidence implicating pesticides as causative agents of prostate cancer is controversial, and specifically, data in young adults is lacking. Hence, we performed a preliminary study evaluating the relationship between pesticide exposure and prostate cancer in young males. After approval from the University of North Dakota Institutional Review Board and Human Subjects Committee, a retrospective study was performed on all young males (</ = 50 years) with a biopsy-proven diagnosis of carcinoma of the prostate. The records of all patients aged less than/equal to 50 years, with a diagnosis of adenocarcinoma of the prostate, from January 1991 through December 2001 were reviewed. Pesticide risk assessment interviews were performed by a single member of the team, for consistency, via telephone on the basis of a pre-determined questionnaire investigating occupations and hobbies with special emphasis on: Duration of exposure. An exposure index was calculated for each interviewed subject according to the following formula: hours/day × days/year × years. Patients with an exposure index >2400 hours were considered as 'exposed.' The 2400 hour cut-off value was chosen on the basis of previous reports indicating that this figure represents heavy exposure to genotoxic agents. Statistical analysis was obtained using SPSS-10®. Between 1991 and 2001, 61 young males with adenocarcinoma of the prostate were identified, of whom 56 patients with a mean age of 47 years (range: 40–49) had complete records of treatment and could be contacted for completion of the questionnaire. The most common stage at presentation was Stage III and the mean Gleason's score was 7.5 (range 5–9). Interestingly, almost a third (16/56, 28.6%) of patients had stage IV disease at presentation. 37/56 (66.1%) patients had 'significant' exposure in our study. In addition, interestingly, the mean survival in the subgroup of patients with pesticide exposure was 11.3 months (SD: +/- 2.3 months), while the mean survival in the patients without pesticide exposure (n = 19) was 20.1 months (SD: +/- 3.1 months), with p-value <0.01. Although our study is relatively small, it does reveal preliminary evidence linking pesticide exposure to the early development of, possibly aggressive, prostate adenocarcinoma. Future, larger, epidemiological studies are needed to confirm the findings of our study.

Phorate Exposure and Incidence of Cancer in the Agricultural Health Study

“…Farming occupation has also been modestly but significantly associated with prostate cancer ( Blair et al 1985 ; Checkoway et al 1987 ; Sharma-Wagner et al 2000 ; van der Gulden and Vogelzang 1996 ; Van Maele-Fabry and Willems 2004 ). In particular, the results of several studies suggest that this association may be caused by exposure to pesticides ( Potti et al 2003 ). Significant associations were found specifically among those individuals who were ever employed in the mixing and application of pesticides ( Fleming et al 1999 ; Settimi et al 2001 ), and cancer risk increased with both the number of days of pesticides applied per year ( van der Gulden et al 1995 ) and the number of acres sprayed with herbicides in 1 year ( Morrison et al 1993 ).…”

Usual adult occupation and risk of prostate cancer in West African men: the Ghana Prostate Study

“…High screening rates also lead to the diagnosis of a greater proportion of indolent PCa, as opposed to the more aggressive forms which have worse prognoses. Thus, some studies have been conducted in the pre-PSA era 10 while others have focused on more aggressive disease, either those with a high Gleason score 8 or cancers occurring in young men (early-onset) 7 9 , since these cancers are less likely to be detected by screening.…”

Occupation, industry, and the risk of prostate cancer: a case-control study in Montréal, Canada

“…However, results from occupation-based studies have generally been inconsistent or inconclusive. Very few of them have taken into account PCa aggressiveness [ 15 – 18 ]. For instance, preliminary results from an American case-control study [ 18 ] found relationships between employment in truck driving or gardening occupations and aggressive PCa relative to lower PCa grade.…”