Fatherhood/prostate cancer link

Fathers may have a higher risk of prostate cancer, study suggests

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Monday, 07, Jan 2008 08:08

Childless men have a lower risk of developing prostate cancer than fathers, a new study suggests.

Research from Danish scientists also found that, paradoxically, the more children a father has, the lower the risk of the disease.

Previous studies have suggested that childless men may be at lower risk of prostate cancer than men with children, and that men who father sons may be at lower risk than men with daughters only.

For the latest study a team led by Kristian Jorgensen of the Statens Serum Institute, Copenhagen, analysed data from all men born in Denmark between 1935 and 1988, among whom 3,400 developed prostate cancer.

Their findings, published in the journal Cancer, showed that men without children were 16 per cent less likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer than those with children.

Among fathers, there was a gradually reduced prostate cancer risk as the number of children increased.

The researchers argue that this suggests a "healthy father" phenomenon - where men who retain fertility are less likely to develop a malignancy.

No association was found between child gender and prostate cancer risk.

The researchers did not find which factors associated with childlessness might be responsible for the risk reduction, but argued that "regardless of the underlying mechanism, the results of the current study provide prospective, epidemiologic support for the view that childless men are somehow at lower risk of developing prostate cancer".

"Additional studies are required to identify the underlying biologic, environmental, social and/or behavioural factors that explain the observed differences in prostate cancer risk between fathers and childless men and between men fathering few and those fathering many children," the researchers conclude.