Pre-diagnostic circulating sex hormone levels and risk of prostate cancer by ERG tumour protein expression

BACKGROUND: Experimental studies have shown androgen receptor stimulation to facilitate formation of the TMPRSS2:ERG gene fusion in prostate cell lines. No study has tested whether higher pre-diagnostic circulating sex hormone levels in men increase risk of developing TMPRSS2:ERG-positive prostate cancer specifically. METHODS: We conducted a nested case–control study of 200 prostate cancer cases and 1057 controls from the Physicians' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study. We examined associations between pre-diagnostic circulating levels of total testosterone, free testosterone, DHT, androstanediol glucuronide, estradiol, and SHBG and risk of prostate cancer by TMPRSS2:ERG status. TMPRSS2:ERG was estimated by ERG immunohistochemistry. We used multivariable unconditional polytomous logistic regression to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for risk of ERG-positive (n=94) and, separately, ERG-negative (n=106) disease. RESULTS: Free testosterone was significantly associated with the risk of ERG-positive prostate cancer (OR: 1.37, 95% CI: 1.05–1.77), but not ERG-negative prostate cancer (OR: 1.09, 95% CI: 0.86–1.38) (P(diff)=0.17). None of the remaining hormones evaluated showed clear differential associations with ERG-positive vs ERG-negative disease. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide some suggestive evidence that higher pre-diagnostic free testosterone levels are associated with an increased risk of developing TMPRSS2:ERG-positive prostate cancer.