Study: Vasectomy Doesn't Increase Prostate Cancer Risk

Vasectomy is not linked to a higher risk for prostate cancer incidence or mortality, according to a new study from the American Cancer Society (ACS).

Noting the limited evidence of the connection between vasectomy and prostate cancer risk in prospective studies, ACS researchers assessed the association in a large cohort in the United States involving 363,726 men in the Cancer Prevention Study II (CPS-II) cohort, of whom 7451 died as a result of prostate cancer during follow-up from 1982 to 2012.
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The authors also evaluated the association between vasectomy and prostate cancer incidence among 66,542 men in the CPS-II Nutrition Cohort, a subgroup of the CPS-II cohort, of whom 9133 were diagnosed with prostate cancer during follow-up from 1992 to 2011.

Among those in the CPS-II cohort, vasectomy was not linked to prostate cancer mortality. In the CPS-II Nutrition Cohort, vasectomy was not associated with either overall prostate cancer incidence or high-grade prostate cancer incidence. These findings, the authors say, do not substantiate a correlation between vasectomy and either prostate cancer incidence or prostate cancer mortality.

The findings "provide some support for the American Urological Association's guidelines that clinicians do not need to discuss prostate cancer when counseling patients about vasectomy," said Eric Jacobs, PhD, strategic director of pharmacoepidemiology at the American Cancer Society, and the study's lead author.

"Primary care practitioners can advise men that smoking and obesity have consistently been linked to higher risk of fatal prostate," Dr Jacobs said, "so lowering risk of fatal prostate cancer is likely to be among the many health benefits of quitting smoking and maintaining a healthy weight."

—Mark McGraw

Reference:
Jacobs EJ, Anderson RL, Stevens VL, et al. Vasectomy and prostate cancer incidence and mortality in a large US cohort [published September 19, 2016]. J Clin Oncol. doi:10.1200/JCO.2015.66.2361.