There have been recent media reports with headlines such as " Vasectomy research heightens cancer fears " and " Having ‘the snip’ raises prostate cancer fears ". These resulted from a 24 year follow up study of about 50,000 men in USA

(http://jco.ascopubs.org/content/earl...O.2013.54.8446
).
It compared the risk of prostate cancer in men who had a vasectomy to the men who hadn’t.


• They found vasectomy to be associated with a 10% increased overall risk and 19% increased risk of the uncommon " aggressive " type of this cancer ( spread to other organs (metastatic) and / or causing death ).


• This type of study can’t prove that vasectomies cause prostate cancer, as there could have been differences in the men that opted for vasectomy that the researchers did not adjust for.


• While a quarter of men in the study had vasectomies, nowadays it’s more like one in six men in the USA and UK.


• The small increase in relative risk, reported but unexplained in this study, should not mean " the snip " being ruled out as a method of contraception

(http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/contrac...ilisation.aspx ).



• There are genetic abnormalities increasing the chance of developing the cancer, but the increased risk is slight – as with vasectomy. The same genes predisposing to female breast cancer also predispose to prostate cancer. The cancer is relatively common in the UK and USA ; even commoner in black populations ; and still appears much less common in Asia, including the Philippines

(http://www.thelancet.com/journals/la...451-0/fulltext ).



• If you are male, or you have a male relative, aged over 50, especially if there are symptoms like increased frequency / urgency of urinating, then your GP can have PSA measured for free on the NHS. This should only be done after consultation and examination.


• Routinely screening all men with a blood test to check for PSA is still not recommended in the UK. It’s not reliable and other tests / investigations are needed to diagnose this cancer

(http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Cancer-...revention.aspx ).
Investigations should now include MRI scan with biopsy samples guided by the appearances on scan.


• Please be reassured that although this cancer is one of the most common cancers in men worldwide, it usually develops slowly, and the same urinary symptoms may often be caused by non-cancerous enlargement of the prostate .