Association between Trichomonas vaginalis and prostate cancer mortality
Menée aux Etats-Unis à partir de données de deux cohortes incluant respectivement 749 et 736 patients atteints d'un cancer de la prostate, cette étude évalue l'association entre une infection à trichomonas vaginalis et la mortalité spécifique et toutes causes confondues (durée médiane de suivi : 13,8 ans ; 423 décès dont 131 décès par cancer de la prostate)
We previously observed a positive association between seropositivity for the parasite Trichomonas vaginalis and risk of clinically significant prostate cancer at diagnosis. Here, we examined whether T. vaginalis seropositivity was associated with increased prostate cancer-specific or all-cause mortality among prostate cancer patients. We studied 749 men with prostate cancer from the Physicians’ Health Study (PHS) and 736 men with prostate cancer from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS). We used Cox proportional hazard models to estimate multivariable hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of the association between T. vaginalis serostatus and progression to death from prostate cancer and from all causes. In PHS, 423 men died of any cause during a median follow-up of 13.8 years from the date of cancer diagnosis, among whom 131 died of prostate cancer. In HPFS, there were 287 deaths, including 77 deaths from prostate cancer, during a median follow-up of 12.8 years. We found no association between T. vaginalis serostatus and either prostate cancer mortality or all-cause mortality in either the PHS or HPFS. While previous studies suggest a possible role for T. vaginalis in the development of clinically significant prostate cancer, our findings do not support the hypothesis that T. vaginalis serostatus is associated with mortality among prostate cancer patients. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.