Sunlight exposure during leisure activities and risk of prostate cancer in Montréal, Canada, 2005–2009

Abstract

BackgroundProstate cancer (PCa) is the leading cause of cancer in men in many developed countries, but no modifiable risk factors have been identified. A handful of analytical studies have suggested a possible etiological role for sunlight exposure. We report here on the association between leisure-time sunlight exposure during adulthood and PCa risk in the context of a population-based case–control study.MethodsIn all, 1,904 PCa cases were ascertained across Montreal French hospitals between 2005 and 2009. Concurrently, 1,962 population controls, frequency matched to cases by age (±5 years), were selected from the electoral list for French-speakers in Greater Montreal. Interviews elicited the frequency of engagement in any leisure activity during adulthood. This was used to derive cumulative sunlight exposure indices: a cumulative number of leisure activities events entailing sunlight exposure and a cumulative duration of sunlight exposure during leisure activities. Unconditional logistic regression was conducted to yield odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for estimating the association between sunlight exposure indices and PCa risk, adjusting for age, ancestry, family history of PCa, PCa screening, education, solar protection, body mass index and physical activity.ResultsCompared with men in the upper quartile category for the number of sunlight exposure events, men never exposed during leisure time had an OR of 1.32 (95% CI: 0.82-2.14). ORs were 1.11, 0.91 and 1.00 for the first to the third quartiles of exposure, respectively. Similar results were observed for cumulative duration of exposure to sunlight, and by PCa aggressiveness.ConclusionThese findings provide little evidence of an association between sunlight exposure during leisure-time and PCa risk. Men with no sunlight exposure appeared at somewhat higher risks but none of the estimates achieved statistical significance.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2458-14-756) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Awareness about proper use of sunscreen in people of color: A Jordanian‐based survey

“…Sun light exposure has several physiological functions; however, excessive sun light exposure plays an important role in the development of most skin cancers . For the past several decades, the incidence of all skin cancers is rising and this is largely attributed to excessive sun light exposure .…”

Occupation as a predictor of prostate cancer screening behaviour in Canada

“…Details of this study have been provided elsewhere. [30][31][32][33] Incident cases of prostate cancer in men aged 40-75 were ascertained across seven French-language hospitals in Montreal. Concurrently, a population control series was constituted by randomly sampling French speaking men residing in Montreal from the provincial permanent electoral list, and frequency matching them to cases by age (AE5 years).…”