'Thought-provoking'

Drs David Margel and Neil Fleshner, from Toronto University, fear that contamination of the food chain with hormones originating from the pill are the likely culprit.
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Comparing the rates of two apparently unrelated issues across countries is a notoriously unreliable way of establishing whether they are truly linked”

End Quote Jessica Harris Cancer Research UK

They stress that their work merely suggests a link and is not proof.

"It must be considered hypothesis generating and thought-provoking," they say in their BMJ Open report.

They said more investigations are needed and recommend close monitoring of environmental levels of oral contraceptive by-products or endocrine disruptive compounds (EDCs).

Dr Kate Holmes, of The Prostate Cancer Charity, agreed that more research was warranted.

"While this study raises some interesting questions about the presence of EDCs in the environment, it does not contribute to our overall understanding of the development of prostate cancer."

Jessica Harris, of Cancer Research UK, said uncertainty about the disease remained.

"Comparing the rates of two apparently unrelated issues across countries is a notoriously unreliable way of establishing whether they are truly linked, because so many things vary between different countries that it's impossible to say whether one thing is causing the other.

"It has been difficult to identify factors that affect the risk of prostate cancer, but we know that men are at higher risk as they get older, or if they have a strong family history of breast or prostate cancer. The disease is also more common in black men than white or Asian men."

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