A new study from the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital reported on the September 9, 2009 Journal of the National Cancer Institute website reported a strong association between Trichomonas vaginalis, a common sexually transmitted infection, and the risk of advanced and lethal prostate cancer in men.
An important risk factor for prostate cancer is inflammation but the source has been unclear. Trichomonas vaginalis can infect the prostate and may be the source of inflammation.
A previous study found an association between Trichomonas Vaginalis infection and prostate cancer but was too small to determine if there was a link between the infection and advanced and lethal prostate disease. In the current stuidy researchers analyzed the blood samples from 673 men with prostate cancer and compared infection status based upon antibody levels with 673 control subjects who were not diagnosed with prostate cancer. The samples of blood were collected in 1982, on an average a decade before the cancer diagnoses.
Results showed that Trichomonas vaginalis infection was associated with over a two fold increase risk of prostate cancer that was at an advanced stage at diagnoses and a nearly three-fold increase in prostate cancer that would result in death. Further research is needed.
