Certain Pesticides Tied to Increased Prostate Cancer Incidence, Mortality

MONDAY, Nov. 4, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Some pesticides are associated with increased prostate cancer incidence and mortality, according to a study published online Nov. 4 in Cancer.

Simon John Christoph Soerensen, M.D., from the Stanford University School of Medicine in California, and colleagues examined the potential role of agricultural pesticide exposure in prostate cancer incidence and mortality. The annual use of 295 distinct pesticides was measured and the associations with prostate cancer incidence and mortality rates in the contiguous United States were assessed. Data were analyzed for 1997-2001 pesticide use with 2011-2015 outcomes and 2002-2006 pesticide use with 2016-2020 outcomes (discovery and replication cohorts, respectively).

The researchers found that across both cohorts, 22 pesticides showed consistent, direct associations with prostate cancer incidence. Four of these pesticides were also associated with prostate cancer mortality. Each one-standard deviation increase in log-transformed pesticide use corresponded to incidence increases per 100,000 individuals in the replication cohort (6.56, 6.18, 3.20, and 2.82 for trifluralin, cloransulam‐methyl, diflufenzopyr, and thiamethoxam, respectively).

“Public health efforts to reduce the burden of prostate cancer should consider pesticides as environmental exposures that may contribute to the incidence of, and mortality related to, prostate cancer,” the authors write

Two authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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