Private MD News

Exposure to pesticides tied to prostate cancer

Category: Prostate

A new study has found that men who have been exposed to certain pesticides may benefit from PSA testing, as the chemicals have been linked to an increased risk of prostate cancer.

The pesticide chlordecone was widely used from the middle of the 20th century on, but was more recently recognized as an environmental pollutant, causing many countries to ban its use.

However, the ban came too late for many men who were exposed to the chemical. Researchers analyzed the blood of study participants for trace evidence of the pesticide. They found that individuals who showed evidence of exposure were significantly more likely to develop prostate cancer.

The authors of the study wrote that genetic variants may make certain individuals more susceptible to the effects of chlordecone, increasing the risk that entire families of could develop prostate cancer.

"The interaction of family history with prostate cancer may be explained by the presence of genetic susceptibility factors which are common both to the disease and to the chlordecone metabolic pathway but also by similar patterns of exposure, shared by members of a same family," they wrote.