Baldness raises PCa risk in African-Americans

Baldness was associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer among African-American men, and risk for advanced prostate cancer increased with younger age and type of baldness, reported researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

"Although this is a high-risk group for poor prostate cancer outcomes, no published study had focused on evaluating baldness as a potential risk factor in a sample of African-American men," said co-author Charnita Zeigler-Johnson, PhD.

Dr. Zeigler-Johnson and her colleagues identified 318 men with prostate cancer and 219 controls among participants who enrolled in the Study of Clinical Outcomes, Risk and Ethnicity (SCORE) between 1998 and 2010. All of them were African-American and had varying degrees of baldness. They obtained information on type of baldness (none, frontal, and vertex) and other medical history using a questionnaire.

The authors found that any baldness was associated with a 69% increased risk of prostate cancer. In particular, African-American men with frontal baldness, and not vertex baldness, were more than twice as likely to have been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. This association was even stronger among men who were diagnosed when younger than 60 years of age, with a sixfold increase in high-stage prostate cancer and a fourfold increase in high-grade prostate cancer.

In addition, among younger men with prostate cancer, those with frontal baldness were more likely to have a high PSA level at diagnosis.

"Early-onset baldness may be a risk factor for early-onset prostate cancer in African-American men, particularly younger men," said Dr. Zeigler-Johnson. "Pending future studies to confirm our results, there is a potential to use early-onset baldness as a clinical indicator of increased risk for prostate cancer in some populations of men."

Results from the study were published online in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention (March 26, 2013).

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