title: Androgenetic alopecia at various ages and prostate cancer risk in an equal-access multiethnic case-control series of veterans.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Epidemiological data are conflicting regarding the association between androgenetic alopecia (AA) and prostate cancer (CaP). We examined the relationship between these two conditions.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a case-control study at a Veterans Affairs Hospital among 708 men: 312 healthy controls, 167 men with CaP, and 229 men without CaP on prostate biopsy. Participants were asked to self-describe hair patterns at ages 30 and 40 and at study enrollment. We tested the association between hair pattern (overall, vertex, or frontal) and CaP status using logistic regression analysis adjusting for multiple clinical features. Disease grade was similarly examined as a secondary outcome.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Relative to healthy controls, younger age of AA onset was significantly associated with increased CaP risk (p = 0.008). Similar patterns were noted for frontal (p = 0.005) and not vertex balding (p = 0.22). When compared with biopsy-negative men, a similar pattern was seen with younger age of AA onset having higher risk of CaP, though this was not significant (p = 0.07). A suggestion for younger age of AA onset for frontal (p = 0.07) being associated with CaP versus biopsy-negative men was also observed. Overall balding (yes/no) was associated with greater than twofold increase in high-grade disease (p = 0.02).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Men reporting earlier AA onset were at increased CaP risk and suggestively had more aggressive disease. Contrary to other studies, frontal balding was the predominant pattern associated with elevated CaP risk. Further study is required to confirm these findings in a larger sample and to better understand the role of AA, androgens, and CaP biology.
authors.affiliation: Division of Urology, Duke Prostate Center, Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Jean-Alfred
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Jodi A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Antonelli
authors.forename: Lionel L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Banez
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hoyo
authors.forename: Delores
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Grant
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Demark-Wahnefried
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Platz
authors.forename: Leah
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gerber
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shuler
authors.forename: Enwono
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Eyoh
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Calloway
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Freedland
mesh_terms: D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D000505:Alopecia / Q000150:complications* / Q000378:metabolism; D000728:Androgens / Q000378:metabolism; D001706:Biopsy; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D000728:Androgens