Risk Factors

In the past few years, we’ve learned that prostate cancer really is several diseases with different causes. More aggressive and fatal cancers likely have different underlying causes than slow-growing tumors.

For example, while smoking has not been thought to be a risk factor for low-risk prostate cancer, it may be a risk factor for aggressive prostate cancer. Likewise, lack of vegetables in the diet (especially broccoli-family vegetables) is linked to a higher risk of aggressive prostate cancer, but not to low-risk prostate cancer.

Body mass index, a measure of obesity, is not linked to being diagnosed with prostate cancer overall. In fact, obese men may have a relatively lower PSA levels than non-obese men due to dilution of the PSA in a larger blood volume. However, obese men are more likely to have aggressive disease.

Other risk factors for aggressive prostate cancer include:

• Tall height
• Lack of exercise and a sedentary lifestyle
• High calcium intake
• African-American race
• Family history
• Agent Orange exposure