Prostate Cancer Statistics

This video was created for a class project in FCM 8420 Epidemiology at the University of Missouri, Columbia, Spring 2010. More Information: Prostate cancer affects men of all ages and races. In 2006, 203415 men developed prostate cancer. Is it possible that cold temperature could cause increased incidence rates of prostate cancer? The journal article we reviewed was attempting to prove just that. Although it seemed well planned and executed, we found several confounding factors that were not addressed in the article that could be the actual culprit. The first article demonstrated that people in climates where there are consistently colder temperatures do not get the recommended amount of daily exercise. Not exercising regularly leads to obesity, which can lead to many other health risks including cancer. The other article examined increased cancer risk with increased exposure of pollutants. They found some pollutants do have a relationship with increased cancers, but other pollutants proved inconclusive. Because pollutants do not degrade and absorb as well in colder temperature as they do in warmer climates, these cold weather climates have an increased amount of pollutants in the air and ground.1 These are just some the confounding issues not examined in the study. Since this is a relatively new idea that cold temperatures affect prostate cancer, more research is needed to follow up on this. It is a biologically plausible idea, but needs more evidence to prove an …

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