BPA Exposure Linked to Prostate Cancer

While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration maintains that bisphenol A (BPA) is safe, new research suggests that this common component found in plastic food containers and packaging could be linked to prostate cancer. The findings appear in the March 3 edition of PLOS ONE.

Animal studies have previously established that BPA exposure contributes to prostate cancer, but there has been little data about this relationship in humans. This research is the first to suggest that BPA levels in men’s urine could be a marker of prostate cancer and that low levels of BPA exposure can cause cellular changes in both normal and cancerous prostate cells.
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“These data call for additional studies and raise continued concerns about the human health effects of BPA,” says principal investigator Shuk-Mei Ho, PhD, director of the Cincinnati Cancer Center and Jacob G. Schmidlapp Chair of Environmental Health at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

Using urine samples, Ho and her colleagues assessed the prostate-specific antigens of 60 urology patients. They found higher levels of BPA in prostate cancer patients than in non-prostate cancer patients (5.74 μg/g creatine vs. 1.43 μg/g creatine)—and that difference was even more pronounced in those under age 65.

“At this point, I would not draw a conclusion that different age groups have different susceptibility,” Ho says. “Rather, I would suggest that the younger group has lifestyle habits with higher or more frequent exposure.”

While the researchers were unable to pinpoint a specific mechanism to explain the link between BPA exposure and the development of prostate cancer, they have identified a couple suspects. Ho suggests that perhaps:

• BPA disrupts the cell cycle machinery responsible for partitioning DNA or chromosomes to the two daughter cells during cell division.

• BPA may reprogram prostate cancer risk through epigenetic events, which are modifications to DNA that can be transmitted to the daughter cells but will not cause DNA damage or mutations.

“We strongly urge additional studies with large sample size, repeated BPA measurements, and perhaps looking into BPA alternatives in the urine samples,” Ho says. “Looking ahead, if these early findings can be confirmed, it offers opportunity for intervention and perhaps prevention with education on lifestyle modification. This would have a significant public health impact.”

—Colleen Mullarkey

Reference

Tarapore P, Ying J, Ouyang B, Burke B, Bracken B, Ho SM. Exposure to bisphenol a correlates with early-onset prostate cancer and promotes centrosome amplification and anchorage-independent growth in vitro. PLoS One. 2014 Mar 3;9(3):e90332.