Background: The etiology of prostate cancer (PCa) is poorly understood.
Sexual activity and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are among factors under scrutiny, with controversial findings to date.
Methods: We examined the association between the number and gender of sexual partners, STIs and PCa risk in the context of PROtEuS, a population-based case-control study set amongst the mainly French-speaking population in Montreal, Canada. The study included 1590 histologically-confirmed PCa cases diagnosed in a Montreal French hospital between 2005 and 2009, and 1618 population controls ascertained from the French electoral list, Montreal residents, frequency-matched to cases by age. In-person interviews elicited information on sociodemographic, lifestyle and environmental factors. Unconditional logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) between sexually related factors and PCa risk, adjusting for age, ancestry, family history of PCa, and PCa screening history.
Results: Subjects with more than 20 sexual partners in their lifetime had a decreased risk of PCa (OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.61-1.00) as did subjects who specifically had more than 20 female sexual partners (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.56-0.94). By contrast, having had several male sexual partners appeared to confer some excess in risk of PCa. No association emerged for history of STIs and PCa but STIs prevalence was low.
Conclusion: Our findings are in support of a role for the number of sexual partners in PCa development. The gender of sexual partners should be taken into account in future studies investigating this association.
Written by:
Spence AR, Rousseau MC, Parent ME. Are you the author?
INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier, Université du Québec, Laval, QC, Canada. Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Montreal, Montréal, QC, Canada; University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM), Montréal, QC, Canada.
Reference: Cancer Epidemiol. 2014 Sep 29. pii: S1877-7821(14)00155-6.
doi: 10.1016/j.canep.2014.09.005
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 25277695