Hair loss as an indicator of prostate cancer risk

Hair loss as an indicator of prostate cancer risk? Early hair loss could be an indication of increased prostate cancer risk.

16/02/2011

Men who have lost their hair at the age of 20 are more likely to contract prostate cancer. You should therefore regularly go to cancer screening. If men suffer from hair loss at an early age, this may be an indication of increased prostate cancer risk, warn French researchers. Philippe Giraud and colleagues report in the latest issue of the journal „Annals of Oncology“, that men who develop a bald head as young as 20 years old are more likely to contract prostate cancer than men who have hair loss at the age of 30 or 40. Patients should urgently use all options for prostate cancer screening, the French researchers warn.

Hair loss as an indication of prostate cancer?
In their study, the researchers interviewed 388 men with prostate cancer and 281 healthy men (as a control group). Comparing the results, it turned out that those diagnosed with prostate cancer twice as likely to suffer from hair loss at the age of 20, as did healthy control subjects, said Philippe Giraud and his research colleagues. In particular, the study results are interesting for cancer prevention, the scientists said. Because „so far there is no clear indication that prostate cancer screening makes sense for the entire male population“, why a way must be found, „to identify men at high risk“, emphasized Philippe Giraud. The early hair loss seems to be a first indication, but further research is needed to clearly demonstrate the relationship between the premature failure of the hair and an increased prostate cancer risk.

Prostate cancer third most common cause of cancer death
Prostate cancers are the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men in this country. According to the German Society of Urology, around 60,000 men in Germany suffer from prostate cancer each year, which means that about 22 percent of all male cancers in Germany affect the prostate. First and foremost, according to the experts, men over the age of 40 are endangered - previously, the risk of disease tends to zero. Thereafter, however, the probability of a malignant tumor increases dramatically and increases steadily with increasing age. However, only in rare cases does prostate cancer lead to a rapid death of patients. Nevertheless, prostate cancer in Germany, with 11,000 deaths from the disease every year, is the third most common cause of cancer death in men. From the age of 50 years (in the case of high-risk patients 45 years of age), the statutory health insurance companies pay a provisional check-up for prostate cancer screening once a year as part of statutory cancer screening.

Prostate cancer in the initial stage asymptomatic, later barely curable
The problem with prostate cancer is that the disease is almost asymptomatic in its early stages. As soon as the first symptoms such as bladder emptying disorders and bone pain or later in the course of weight loss and anemia occur, the disease is usually already at a significantly advanced stage. If a diagnosis is made at this time, metastasis is often already present and the treatment of malignant tumors becomes more difficult - the chances of recovery are significantly reduced. Therefore, prostate cancer screening is of particular importance to increase the chances of successful treatment. Up to now, especially men in whose family environment prostate cancer has already been diagnosed were considered as high-risk patients who should undergo regular preventive check-ups. However, the results of the French researchers suggest that this should apply in the future for men with early hair loss. (Fp)

Read about prostate cancer:
Prostate cancer is said to be partly hereditary
Infertility indicator of later prostate cancer

Picture: Duxschulz