Prostate Cancer May Begin in the Womb

[Angel]

Could prostate cancer have its origins in the womb? Maybe, report researchers who studied the effect of environmental estrogens on developing rats.

Animals that were exposed to the hormones while still in the womb were more likely to develop prostate cancer in old age.

The investigators used two different types of estrogens for their study. The first was bisphenol A (BPA), which is widely used in the manufacture of plastics and has been found in human blood, fetal tissues and the placenta of pregnant women. The second was the natural estrogen estradiol.

The early exposure led to life-long changes in prostate cells in the rats that the researchers believe led to prostate disease as they got older. They also found rats exposed to BPA early on were more sensitive to the effects of estradiol as they aged, which could increase the risk for prostate cancer even more.

"Most remarkably, early BPA exposure sensitized the prostate to precancerous lesions brought on by exposure of the adult animal to elevated estradiol," says study author Dr. Gail Prins, from the University of Illinois at Chicago. "This is highly relevant to people, because relative estradiol levels increase in aging men as a result of their increased body fat and declining testosterone levels."

However, she and fellow author Dr. Shuk-Mei Ho, from the University of Cincinnati, stop short of saying exposure to estrogens early in life could be putting men at greater risk for prostate cancer. They write, "Application to human prostate disease will await future studies."