A new study by the American Cancer Society has ruled out concerns that vasectomy causes prostate cancer.
In addition to cancer, other dominant concerns related to vasectomy are excessive pain, anxiety about the success rate, workability and anxiety on what would happen to one's sex life after surgery.
The new findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, rules out all previously cited correlations and fears that had linked vasectomy with prostate cancer.
A previous research by Harvard scientists in 2014 had cited the high risk of prostate cancer in the aftermath of a vasectomy. Next to melanoma, prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among men in the United States.
For the study, cancer epidemiologist Dr. Eric Jacobs and colleagues at the American Cancer Society examined a vast sample of more than 7,000 cases of prostate cancer deaths. The new review had nearly 10 times more cases to examine than the 2014 study, which looked into 800 prostate cancer deaths.
The American Cancer Society researchers also analyzed data from 363,000 men above 40 years old who participated in the Cancer Prevention Study II. Of that number, 42,000 had a vasectomy. The new study focused on 7,400 prostate cancer deaths that took place during the span of the Cancer Prevention Study II, a period of 30 years. None of them gave any lead that vasectomy was a catalyst for cancer.
The result annuls the fear that the vasectomy snip is fatal and it may invite cancer of the prostate.
Noting that vasectomy is an inexpensive birth control method, Jacobs, the study's lead author, said nobody should be discouraged.
"The overall weight of all of the evidence is that vasectomy is unlikely to meaningfully increase risk of any type of prostate cancer," he said.
According to medical oncologist Dr. Sumanta Pal, the new study mitigates concerns that vasectomy would trigger the development of prostate cancer and lead to death.
Vasectomy is a birth control method practiced by men where the vas deferens, the tubes that sperm pass through from the testicles, are cut, sealed or clamped. As a result, the sperm doesn't mix with semen during sex. The vas deferens tubes are in close proximity to the prostate gland.
Hailing the new study, Charlotte Bevan, a professor at Imperial College London, said the big size of the sample strengthens the credibility of the study.
At the same time, ignoring the findings of the previous study would be a risk, she said, as the scale of the 2014 study offers good insight.
Photo: Aja M Johnson | Flickr
