Prevalence of pesticide exposure in young males (</= 50 years) with adenocarcinoma of the prostate

Evidence implicating pesticides as causative agents of prostate cancer is controversial, and specifically, data in young adults is lacking. Hence, we performed a preliminary study evaluating the relationship between pesticide exposure and prostate cancer in young males. After approval from the University of North Dakota Institutional Review Board and Human Subjects Committee, a retrospective study was performed on all young males (</ = 50 years) with a biopsy-proven diagnosis of carcinoma of the prostate. The records of all patients aged less than/equal to 50 years, with a diagnosis of adenocarcinoma of the prostate, from January 1991 through December 2001 were reviewed. Pesticide risk assessment interviews were performed by a single member of the team, for consistency, via telephone on the basis of a pre-determined questionnaire investigating occupations and hobbies with special emphasis on: Duration of exposure. An exposure index was calculated for each interviewed subject according to the following formula: hours/day × days/year × years. Patients with an exposure index >2400 hours were considered as 'exposed.' The 2400 hour cut-off value was chosen on the basis of previous reports indicating that this figure represents heavy exposure to genotoxic agents. Statistical analysis was obtained using SPSS-10(®). Between 1991 and 2001, 61 young males with adenocarcinoma of the prostate were identified, of whom 56 patients with a mean age of 47 years (range: 40–49) had complete records of treatment and could be contacted for completion of the questionnaire. The most common stage at presentation was Stage III and the mean Gleason's score was 7.5 (range 5–9). Interestingly, almost a third (16/56, 28.6%) of patients had stage IV disease at presentation. 37/56 (66.1%) patients had 'significant' exposure in our study. In addition, interestingly, the mean survival in the subgroup of patients with pesticide exposure was 11.3 months (SD: +/- 2.3 months), while the mean survival in the patients without pesticide exposure (n = 19) was 20.1 months (SD: +/- 3.1 months), with p-value <0.01. Although our study is relatively small, it does reveal preliminary evidence linking pesticide exposure to the early development of, possibly aggressive, prostate adenocarcinoma. Future, larger, epidemiological studies are needed to confirm the findings of our study.