According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer for men of all races in the United States and occurs at a rate of about 128 cases per 100,000 at-risk males. That is nearly twice the rate of male lung cancer and three times the rate of colorectal cancer in men.

Although black men tend to have somewhat higher incident cases, risk factors and indicators of prostate cancer have otherwise remained elusive. A new study suggests that male pattern baldness may in fact turn out to be a predictor of an aggressive form of prostate cancer. The report that describes the study was published in the September 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Michael Cook, an epidemiologist in the National Cancer Institute’s Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, and his colleagues explored whether men who took part in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial exhibited an association between male pattern baldness and prostate cancer, as the two conditions “appear to share common pathophysiologic mechanisms,” according to the report.

Cook and coworkers included just over 39,000 men in the PLCO cohort between the ages of 55 and 74 who recalled their hair-loss patterns. The men had no cancer diagnoses when they enrolled, and their hair-loss recall was for their 45^th year of life. Approximately 18 percent of the men recalled having male pattern baldness at 45. Over 1,100 men were eventually diagnosed with prostate cancer, and nearly 600 of these cases involved aggressive prostate cancer.

Compared with no baldness, baldness on the front and moderate crown baldness were associated with increased risk of aggressive prostate cancer later in life. The risk for men with baldness at 45 to develop aggressive prostate cancer was about 39 percent higher than for men with little or no balding. When considering all types of prostate cancer together or only nonaggressive prostate cancer, however, the associations were insignificant.

“It is conceivable that, in the future, male pattern baldness may play a small role in estimating risk of prostate cancer and may contribute to discussions between doctors and patients about prostate cancer screening,” said Cook.