title: Plasma testosterone in the general population, cancer prognosis and cancer risk: a prospective cohort study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Testosterone is an important anabolic hormone in humans and in vitro testosterone stimulates growth of lung and colon cancer cells. We tested the hypothesis that plasma testosterone associate with increased risk of cancer and with increased risk of early death after cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  Plasma testosterone was measured in 8771 20- to 94-year-old men and women who participated in a prospective study of the general population. Participants were included in 1981-1983 and followed for a median of 22 years (range: 0-30 years).
  
  
  RESULTS
  During follow-up, 1140 men and 809 women developed cancer. For risk of early death after cancer, for men, after adjustment for age at diagnosis, tumour stage at diagnosis, and time since blood-sampling, the hazard ratio was 1.30 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03-1.65] for the 2nd quintile, 1.31 (1.02-1.67) for the 3rd quintile, 1.52 (1.19-1.93) for the 4th quintile, and 1.52 (1.20-1.91) for the 5th quintile, versus the 1st quintile. For women, corresponding hazard ratios were 1.09 (0.81-1.46), 1.17 (0.86-1.59), 1.03 (0.76-1.39), and 1.80 (1.32-2.46). For risk of cancer, multifactorially adjusted hazard ratios for risk of any cancer were 1.07 (95% CI 0.98-1.18) and 1.06 (0.93-1.22) for men and women, respectively, when testosterone doubled. For both men and women, a doubling of testosterone was not associated with risk of any cancer type.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this prospective study of 8771 men and women from the general population followed for >30 years, increased levels of testosterone were associated with a 30%-80% increased risk of early death after cancer, but unchanged risk of incident cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Oncology; Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Herlev Hospital, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen.
authors.forename: D D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Ørsted
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Herlev Hospital, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen; Department of Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen; Department of The Copenhagen City Heart Study, Frederiksberg Hospital, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: B G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Nordestgaard
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Herlev Hospital, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen; Department of Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen; Department of The Copenhagen City Heart Study, Frederiksberg Hospital, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark. Electronic address: stig.egil.bojesen@regionh.dk.
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Bojesen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality*; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012306:Risk; D012307:Risk Factors; D013739:Testosterone / Q000097:blood*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D013739:Testosterone
keywords: cancer; human; prospective cohort; survival; testosterone