June 18, 2002
     Prostate Cancer

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Vasectomy cleared of boosting prostate cancer risk

CHICAGO ­ June 18, 2002 (Cancer Digest)-- Vasectomy does not increase the risk of prostate cancer, even after 25 years or more according to a New Zealand study.

The study confirms several other studies done in the U.S. and elsewhere since 1990 when a pair of large studies found that men who had vasectomies were more likely to develop prostate cancer. With this large population study, the issue may be laid to rest.

Led by Dr. Brian Cox, of the Dunedin School of Medicine in Dunedin, New Zealand, the researchers published their findings in the June 19th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Between 1997 and 1999 the researchers conducted telephone interviews with 923 men ages 40 to 74 identified from the New Zealand Cancer Registry as being newly diagnosed with prostate cancer. They also interviewed 1,224 similar men identified from voter registration records who did not have cancer.

When they compared the men in each group who had undergone vasectomies they found no differences linked to prostate cancer.

"There was no association between prostate cancer and vasectomy nor with time since vasectomy," they wrote. "Adjustment for social class, geographic region, religious affiliation, and a family history of prostate cancer did not affect these relative risks."

A vasectomy is a common form of mail contraception in which a doctor cuts a small section out of the tubes, called the vas deferens, that carry sperm from the testes. The open ends of these tubes, are then closed, blocking the flow of sperm.

According to the U.S. National Cancer Institute, approximately 168 men in 100,000 were be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2000. It is the second most common cancer among men after skin cancer. Of all the men who are diagnosed with cancer each year, more than one-fourth have prostate cancer.

SOURCE: JAMA. 2002;287:3110-3115