Study Finds Link Between Chronic Inflammation and High-Grade Prostate Cancer

Men with chronic inflammation in non-cancerous prostate tissue may have nearly twice the risk of prostate cancer as those with no inflammation, according to a recent study.

The study, published in the April 18, 2014, edition of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, examined benign tissue samples from the biopsies of 191 men with prostate cancer and 209 men without prostate cancer for the prevalence and extent of immune cells with inflammation. The researchers found that 86.2% of prostate cancer patients had at least 1 tissue sample exhibiting signs of inflammation, compared with 78.2% of men without cancer who had tissue inflammation.

The study finds a stronger link between chronic inflammation and cancer in men who carry a Gleason score between 7 and 10, which indicates high-grade prostate cancer, the most aggressive and rapidly growing form of prostate cancer. In patients who had at least 1 tissue sample with signs of chronic inflammation, the odds of having prostate cancer were 1.78 times higher and the odds of having an aggressive form of prostate cancer were 2.24 times higher.

“We knew going into this research that inflammation in the prostate is very common in men who have biopsies because of the higher PSA levels and other indicators of prostate cancer, but we did not anticipate the high prevalence of prostate inflammation in men who didn’t have an indication for biopsy,” said researcher Angelo M. De Marzo, MD, PhD, in a press release.