STEROID-INVOLVED CANCER IN MEN

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Now let's deal with steroid-induced cancer in men. In the past eight years, the number of men who die each year from prostate cancer has increased from 27,000 to 41,000 in the United States. But, adjusting for population size, its incidence in China is far lower. Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in older men, at least in the more developed countries. The only comforting aspect of this picture for the older man is that the older he gets, the more likely it is that he will die from some other cause, because prostate cancers (that are still limited to the prostate gland) generally decrease their growth rate as the individual ages. Since the prostate gland is composed of steroid hormone responsive or sensitive tissue, it turns out that what matters is the balance between three steroid hormones: testosterone, dihydrotestosterone (DHT), and a third, 17 beta estradiol (E2). Tissue in the normal testes makes E2 to a small extent, but it is made to a much greater extent by adipose (fat depot) tissue. It is also true that the tendency for a given amount of adipose tissue to produce E2 increases with age, starting at about age 30.(ref. needed)