The Effect of Vasectomy Reversal on Prostate Cancer Risk: International Meta-Analysis of 684,660 Men with Vasectomies - Beyond the Abstract
Our recent study attempted to remove this source of bias by investigating the effect of vasectomy reversal on prostate cancer risk while investigating only vasectomised men. If vasectomy reversal decreases the risk of prostate cancer, this supports the hypothesis that vasectomy increases the risk of prostate cancer, while removing the issue of detection bias.
Our study examined 684,660 men with vasectomies from Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, of whom 9,754 had a reversal. Combined analysis showed no protective effect of vasectomy reversal on prostate cancer incidence. Our results support previous studies that found no evidence of a link between vasectomy and prostate cancer.
The combined weight of previous research suggests any effect of vasectomy on prostate cancer, if it were to exist, is likely to be small. Combined with the issue of detection bias and the difficulty of removing all confounding variables, this research question is particularly difficult to answer conclusively through the typical comparison of individuals with and without vasectomy in observational epidemiology. Any further exploration of this issue should focus instead on alternate research designs and modalities which have greater opportunity to shed new light on this topic. Particularly important are studies which attempt to ascertain the purported biological mechanisms underlying the link between vasectomy and prostate cancer.
Based on current research, it is unlikely vasectomy plays any causal role in prostate cancer risk, and patients should not consider prostate cancer risk as a factor when deciding whether or not to pursue a vasectomy.
Written by: Sean Randall, Centre for Data Linkage, Curtin University, Perth, Australia
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