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Frequency of Ejaculation and Risk of Prostate Cancer

Frequency of Ejaculation and Risk of Prostate Cancer To the Editor: In their prospective study, Dr Leitzmann and colleagues1 replicated the findings of our case-control study2 in regard to a protective relationship between frequency of ejaculation and risk of prostate cancer. Although the study of Leitzmann et al avoids the potential for recall bias, for both their study and ours the accuracy of ejaculation assessment was likely to be affected by problems in recall of past practice, particularly of that in early adult life. We believe that the effect of such a bias would tend to be conservative and would have thus underestimated any real effect for ejaculation. We were puzzled by the authors' choice of men with the second lowest frequency of ejaculation as the reference category. It would be interesting to see the relative risks produced by an analysis that combined the first 2 groups together as the reference category. Unlike many other studies, we found no effect with number of sexual partners. It would be interesting to know also if Leitzmann et al measured this variable. Our study found a particularly striking protective effect that was limited to ejaculations experienced in early adulthood.2 Neither study, however, addressed the question of ejaculatory frequency during puberty, but this might prove to be particularly illuminating if appropriate questions could be included in one of the biennial follow-ups of the study of Leitzmann et al. References 1. Leitzmann MF, Platz EA, Stampfer MJ, Willett WC, Giovannucci E. Ejaculation frequency and subsequent risk of prostate cancer. JAMA.2004;291:1578-1586.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?db=m&form=6&Dopt=r&uid=entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15069045&dopt=AbstractGoogle Scholar 2. Giles GG, Severi G, English DR. et al. Sexual factors and prostate cancer. BJU Int.2003;92:211-216.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?db=m&form=6&Dopt=r&uid=entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12887469&dopt=AbstractGoogle Scholar http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png JAMA American Medical Association

Frequency of Ejaculation and Risk of Prostate Cancer

Frequency of Ejaculation and Risk of Prostate Cancer

Abstract

To the Editor: In their prospective study, Dr Leitzmann and colleagues1 replicated the findings of our case-control study2 in regard to a protective relationship between frequency of ejaculation and risk of prostate cancer. Although the study of Leitzmann et al avoids the potential for recall bias, for both their study and ours the accuracy of ejaculation assessment was likely to be affected by problems in recall of past practice, particularly of that in early adult life. We believe that the...
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References (2)

Publisher
American Medical Association
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved.
ISSN
0098-7484
eISSN
1538-3598
DOI
10.1001/jama.292.3.329-a
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

To the Editor: In their prospective study, Dr Leitzmann and colleagues1 replicated the findings of our case-control study2 in regard to a protective relationship between frequency of ejaculation and risk of prostate cancer. Although the study of Leitzmann et al avoids the potential for recall bias, for both their study and ours the accuracy of ejaculation assessment was likely to be affected by problems in recall of past practice, particularly of that in early adult life. We believe that the effect of such a bias would tend to be conservative and would have thus underestimated any real effect for ejaculation. We were puzzled by the authors' choice of men with the second lowest frequency of ejaculation as the reference category. It would be interesting to see the relative risks produced by an analysis that combined the first 2 groups together as the reference category. Unlike many other studies, we found no effect with number of sexual partners. It would be interesting to know also if Leitzmann et al measured this variable. Our study found a particularly striking protective effect that was limited to ejaculations experienced in early adulthood.2 Neither study, however, addressed the question of ejaculatory frequency during puberty, but this might prove to be particularly illuminating if appropriate questions could be included in one of the biennial follow-ups of the study of Leitzmann et al. References 1. Leitzmann MF, Platz EA, Stampfer MJ, Willett WC, Giovannucci E. Ejaculation frequency and subsequent risk of prostate cancer. JAMA.2004;291:1578-1586.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?db=m&form=6&Dopt=r&uid=entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15069045&dopt=AbstractGoogle Scholar 2. Giles GG, Severi G, English DR. et al. Sexual factors and prostate cancer. BJU Int.2003;92:211-216.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?db=m&form=6&Dopt=r&uid=entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12887469&dopt=AbstractGoogle Scholar

Journal

JAMAAmerican Medical Association

Published: Jul 21, 2004

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