Thank you for visiting nature. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer. In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. The microaerophylic organism Propionibacterium acnes has shown consistent association with prostate cancer PC.
Studies linking circumcision with reduced PC further support anaerobes involvement as circumcision reduces anaerobe colonisation on the glans penis. A study linked anaerobes with PC but considered them as opportunists in necrotic tumour. Active surveillance patients were enrolled. None of 10 control samples contained obligate anaerobes. Given the substantially higher proportion of PC patients with organisms growing in a low concentration of oxygen when combined with previous studies compared to controls, the degree of significance was as high as smoking 5—9 cigarettes a day and needs further investigation.
Translational research in trials combining Vitamin D and aspirin have begun as part of such investigation. There is considerable amount of evidence that chronic inflammation is a concomitant of cancer development in most sites, including prostate cancer 1.
Linkage between low oxygen-tolerating organisms and malignant transformation has been established with evidence for the association of the microaerophylic bacterium, Helicobacter. More limited is evidence that Vitamin D deficiency is a promoting factor for this cancer type 9 , In prostate cancer there is no well accepted pathogen consistently associated with this malignancy nor the inflammation associated with it despite multiple studies, many of which have provided early suggestions but failed to be confirmed on subsequent studies However, recent studies have suggested that infection with Propionibacterium.
Studies linking circumcision with reduced risk of prostate cancer 19 , 20 , 21 is further supportive evidence of the role of such organisms in prostate cancer aetiology as randomised trials of circumcision have demonstrated reduced anaerobe colonisation of the glans penis after circumcision The uncircumcised glans penis has direct access to the prostate through the urethra 23 which is relatively anoxic. Although there is one report from linking anaerobes with prostate cancer 24 and one study demonstrating that antibiotics can clear them from the prostate 25 , most workers have until recently considered them as opportunists colonising necrotic tumour tissue rather than being considered as actual causative factors.
