Scientists have found that circumcised men run a lower risk of developing prostate cancer than men who are not circumcised.
Circumcision reduces the risk of prostate cancer.
Scientists have found that circumcised men run a lower risk of developing prostate cancer than men who are not circumcised.
The man does have to have been circumcised before he first had sex. This emerges from research by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
The researchers found that a circumcision can prevent harmful infections that may lead to prostate cancer. For the study, the scientists analysed the data of 3399 men. Of these, 1645 were healthy and 1754 had prostate cancer.
Those data showed that the men who were circumcised before they became sexually active were 15 percent less likely to develop prostate cancer compared with men who were not circumcised, or who were only circumcised after they first had sex.
Inflammation
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and infections can cause long-lasting inflammation. This can lead to prostate cancer. A circumcision can prevent inflammation because the inner foreskin is drawn tight and the moist space under the foreskin thereby disappears. Disease-causing micro-organisms could survive there.
According to the scientist, the study suggests that a circumcision reduces the risk of prostate cancer, but further research into the relationship between infections and circumcision is needed.
The results of the study have been published in the journal Cancer.
