prostate-report.org

Timing of Physical Maturity in Men Influences Prostate Cancer Risk

Reuters Health reports on a study published in the journal ‘Urology’ which ’suggests’ that the timing of physical development in young men is related to the risk of prostate cancer.

The study was based on a comparison of bodily and sexual development in one group of 64 men who had developed prostate cancer and another group of 218 men who had not.

The results showed that the group of men who developed prostate cancer had reached physical maturity (defined as the age at which they reached their maximum shoe size) on average 2.5 years later (at 20 y.o.) than the men who did not develop prostate cancer.

In addition, men who rated themselves as being thinner than their peers at ages 10 to 13 were also more prone to prostate cancer.

The study, led by Dr. Paola Muti of the Italian National Cancer Institute, also noted that the timing of sexual development (defined by the age at which young men started shaving) was approximately the same (at 18 y.o.) for both groups of men.

Dr. Muti’s research concluded “that risk determinants operating early in life affect men’s subsequent prostate cancer risk.”