Men who go bald by 40 more likely to get prostate cancer

Men who experience receding hair lines early in life are more likely to suffer prostate cancer, a new study has claimed.

Researchers, who studied hair loss patterns in nearly 10,000 men, found men who go bald by the time they reach 40 were more likely to suffer a tumour later on.

The study supports earlier findings suggesting baldness could be linked with prostate cancer, 'Daily Mail' reported.

The reasons are not clear but previous studies indicate it could be due to higher levels of testosterone, the hormone which can trigger the development of cancerous cells but also inhibit hair growth.

"Both prostate cancer and hair loss are strongly age-related conditions that are considered to be androgen (hormone) dependent.

"We found that baldness at the age of 40 might be a marker of increased risk of early-onset prostate cancer," researchers said.

In baldness, it's thought high testosterone levels have an adverse affect on the hair follicles, acting on a hormone receptor to slow down hair production.

Experts at the Cancer Council of Victoria in Australia monitored 9,448 men who took part in a long-term health study.

The men, aged between 40 and 69 at the time the project began were asked to score how much hair they had lost at the ages of 20 and 40.

Scientists then tracked the study participants to see how many of them went on to develop prostate cancer later in life and at what age.

The research showed men who were mostly bald at 40 were significantly more likely to develop early-onset cancer, which for some could be in their fifties or sixties.

The study was published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

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