Chronic inflammation may be prostate cancer risk factor

Chronic inflammation may be a significant risk factor in the development of prostate cancer, suggest results of a study from Case Western Reserve University researchers in Cleveland.

Researchers led by Sanjay Gupta, PhD, examined the results of prostate needle biopsy from 177 men between ages 47 and 83 years who were at high risk for developing cancer, on the basis of either high PSA scores or abnormal DREs. Of the 177 men, 144 (81%) were found to have chronic prostate tissue inflammation. The team categorized the biopsies based on pathology; about 20% (29/144) had cancer in the initial biopsies.

The researchers then analyzed 84 subsequent biopsies performed within 5 years in patients who had initially shown chronic prostate inflammation, and 29 new cancer cases were diagnosed.

“We observed a significant association between serum PSA and the degree of chronic inflammation,” said Dr. Gupta, who added that this was expected, based on previous findings. “The first concern is, should patients with initial biopsies showing no malignancy but showing chronic inflammation be followed more closely and, perhaps, re-biopsied more frequently?”

Results were presented at the 2006 American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting in Washington.