Estrogen Metabolism and Prostate Cancer Risk: A Prospective Study

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in the United States (IARC, 1995) and the second most common in the European Community (IARC, 1995). The causes of prostate cancer, however, remain largely unknown, with age, race, and family history being the only established risk factors (Nomura et al., 1997). The prostate gland has historically been considered the prototype of an androgen-dependent organ. However, there is evidence that estrogens may induce mitosis of prostatic epithelial cells in many species, including humans (Leav et al., 1978; Schulze et al., 1987). The present report analyzes the association between prostate cancer and estrogen metabolism investigated in a case-control study. In particular, we tested the hypothesis that the pathway favoring 2-hydroxylation over 16a-hydroxylation may be associated with decrease in prostate cancer risk. This is the annual report for the second year of the study activity. During the second year of activity, we completed the re-call of 1,150 participants of the Western New York prospective cohort with the identification of 41 incident prostate cancer cases. Among the participants who did not received diagnosis of prostate cancer, we identified 164 control subjects. The development of the database for the case-control analysis is on-going The frozen urine samples have been identified in the biological specimen bank and in these days we are planning the shipment of the specimens to the laboratory for the hormone determinations.