British researchers have linked prostate cancer with X-rays. A study conducted by the University of Nottingham shows a connection between diagnostic radiation and elevated risk of young-onset prostate cancer, which affects about ten percent of men diagnosed. Young-onset prostate cancer is by definition found in men before the age of sixty.
The study included 431 men diagnosed with prostate cancer. It showed that men who had typical diagnostic X-rays in the form of barium enemas or X-rays of the pelvis or hip in the previous ten years, were two and a half times more likely to be stricken with prostate cancer than the population at large. In men with a family history of the disease, the link appeared even stronger.
The study also emphasized that the evidence that ties X-rays to prostate cancer is still weak at this stage. Professor Kenneth Muir, who led the study, said, “Although these results show some increase in the risk of developing prostate cancer in men who had previously had certain radiological medical tests, we want to reassure men that the absolute risks are small and there is no proof that the radiological tests actually caused any of the cancers.”
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