Association Between Early MPB and Prostate Cancer?

Snippet from the abstract:

Results: Our study revealed that patients with prostate cancer were twice as likely to have androgenic alopecia at age 20 [odds ratio (OR) 2.01, P = 0.0285]. The pattern of hair loss was not a predictive factor for the development of cancer. There was no association between early-onset alopecia and an earlier diagnosis of prostate cancer or with the development of more aggressive tumors.

Conclusions: This study shows an association between early-onset androgenic alopecia and the development of prostate cancer. Whether this population can benefit from routine prostate cancer screening or systematic use of 5-alpha reductase inhibitors as primary prevention remains to be determined.

Read the rest — Male pattern baldness and the risk of prostate cancer

I was recently asked by a reader of this site about a link between developing early genetic balding and having prostate cancer somewhere down the road, so I researched it a little and found the above article. I don’t think we wrote about it before, but this study was published in the Annals of Oncology a little over a year ago.

The MPB / prostate cancer connection seems to be present, but what to do about it, if anything, remains to be seen. The suggestion that the 5 alpha reductase inhibitors like finasteride, may have a role in reducing the risk for prostate cancer, but that process is not well understood and the long term risks of such drugs are presently under a cloud of controversy.

There were 669 patient studied, of which 388 had a history of prostate cancer. There was no association on the degree of balding, just the presence of genetic balding patterns earlier in life. Men under the age of 30 and those who have developed vertex (crown) balding seem to have a higher prostate cancer risk. The study was taken in many countries and each patient answered questionnaires, from which the data was extracted.