Hair Foundation Blog

In a new study from the University of Pennsylvania, researchers have found a connection in African-American men for baldness and a higher risk of prostate cancer.

Conducted by a team from the university’s Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, the study found from surveying 537 African-American men (318 had prostate cancer with 219-person control group) any kind of baldness had been correlated with a 69 percent greater chance of prostate cancer risk, notably for African-American men.

But why focus on this audience?

According to Charnita Zeigler-Johnson, Ph.D., research assistant professor at the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics,  ”We focused on African-American men because they are at high risk for developing prostate cancer and are more than twice as likely to die from prostate cancer than other groups in the United States. Although this is a high-risk group for poor prostate cancer outcomes, no published study had focused on evaluating baldness as a potential risk factor in a sample of African-American men.”

The data has been published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. This is a journal from the American Association for Cancer Research.

Other findings in the study included that African-American men with frontal baldness as opposed to vertex baldness, were more than twice as likely to receive an advanced prostate cancer diagnosis. This tie-in was even higher for the men diagnosed when they were younger than 60. There is a sixfold rise in high-stage prostate cancer and a fourfold jump in high-grade prostate cancer.

For those men with prostate cancer who are younger, those who have frontal baldness have a greater likelihood to have a high prostate-specific antigen level when diagnosed.

Zeigler-Johnson added, “Early-onset baldness may be a risk factor for early-onset prostate cancer in African-American men, particularly younger men. Pending future studies to confirm our results, there is a potential to use early-onset baldness as a clinical indicator of increased risk for prostate cancer in some populations of men.”

This comes as African-American men have the  highest incidence rate for prostate cancer in the United States, according to the National Cancer Institute. In addition, as compared to white men, they are more than twice as likely to die from the disease.

Berg Pharma, a Boston-based pharmaceutical company focused on discovery and development of new treatments in cancer and metabolic diseases, has announced the start of its new clinical trial, “Phase I Dose-Escalation Study to Evaluate the Safety, Tolerability and Pharmacokinetics of a Topical Compound 31543 in Adult Patients Receiving Chemotherapy for the Treatment of Breast Cancer.”

The trial will be conducted at New York City’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Here’s more details about the news.

While many struggle with one’s appearance after hair loss, there’s another factor that may be overlooked: protecting your head after a temporary hair loss.

Now that we are approaching warmer temperatures in most of the country, not only do we have to be concerned about sun damage on our faces and body, what about those newly exposed areas from hair loss?

In this Business Week article, it addresses these concerns, noting the increased vulnerabilities for those who have recently lost their hair due to chemotherapy or hair disease. Some tips are included in the article and hopefully it acts as a good message that this is something you need to think about with hair loss.