Prostate Cancer Risk Raised by Inflamation: Study

Men who suffer from regular inflation of the prostate are at a higher risk for developing prostate cancer, a recent study suggests.

Inflammation of the prostate, called prostatitis, is not uncommon among men. While commonly associated with bacterial infection, past research has indicated that only five to ten percent of all prostate inflammation cases are caused by bacteria. In-fact, prostatitis can even occur naturally, reacting to changes in the immune system unrelated to a foreign threat. According to the National Institutes of Health, prostitutes may actually account for up to 25 percent of all office visits concerning genital and urinary symptoms among men of all ages.

Chronic prostate inflammation -- prostatitis that last more than three months -- can also be an uncomfortable but not-uncommon problem for middle-aged men. Nearly 90 percent of chronic inflammation is caused by non-bacterial prostatitis and is marked by consistent genital and urinary pain. Many men who first experience this condition worry the they may have prostate cancer, but the conditional has never been associated with the deadly disease, until now.

According to a study published in Caner Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, while chronic prostate inflammation is not a direct symptom of cancer, men suffering from it face a higher likelihood of developing prostate cancer in the future.

Researcher analyzed benign tissue samples taken from 191 men with prostate cancer and 209 men without cancer. Each biopsy was examined for signs of chronic inflammation, indicated by a prevalence of immune cells and confirmed by each patient's word.

The analysis found that 86.2 percent of prostate cancer subjects had signs of chronic inflammation, despite the fact that prostate cancer does not cause the condition. In contrast, only 78.2 percent of the men without cancer showed signs of past inflammation, indicating an association between inflammation and cancer, if not a cause-and-effect relationship.

The study was published in Caner Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention on April 18.