Muscle Supplements Linked To Cancer Risk

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A new study links taking muscle-building supplements, such as pills and powders with creatine or androstenedione, with an increased risk of testicular cancer.

Moreover, says study senior author Tongzhang Zheng, the associated testicular germ cell cancer risk was especially high among men who started using supplements before age 25, those who used multiple supplements, and those who used them for years.

Says Zheng, who led the study at Yale University before joining the Brown University School of Public Health as a professor of epidemiology:

“The observed relationship was strong. If you used at earlier age, you had a higher risk. If you used them longer, you had a higher risk. If you used multiple types, you had a higher risk.”

Testicular Cancer

Testicular cancer incidence rose to 5.9 cases per 100,000 men in 2011, from 3.7 cases in 100,000 in 1975, Zheng says. Researchers aren’t sure why.

“Testicular cancer is a very mysterious cancer,” he says. “None of the factors we’ve suspected can explain the increase.”

The study is the first analytical epidemiological study of the possible link between supplements and testicular cancer, the authors write in the British Journal of Cancer. Mounting evidence that at least some supplement ingredients may damage the testes inspired the study.

“Our study found that supplement use was related to a higher risk of developing testicular cancer. These results are important because there are few identified modifiable risk factors for testicular cancer,”

says Russ Hauser, professor of environmental health science at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a main collaborator of the research.

65% Greater Risk

Zheng’s research team conducted detailed interviews of nearly 900 men from Massachusetts and Connecticut—356 of whom had been diagnosed with testicular germ cell cancer, and 513 who had not.

In the interviews, researchers asked the men not only about their supplement use but also about a wide variety of other possible factors such as smoking, drinking, exercise habits, family history of testicular cancer, and prior injury to their testes or groin.

After tallying their data and accounting for all those possible confounders, as well as age, race, and other demographics, the researchers found that the men who used supplements had a 1.65 odds ratio (a 65 percent greater risk) of having developed testicular cancer compared to the men who did not use supplements.

The researchers defined “use” as consuming one or more supplements at least once a week for four consecutive weeks or more.

The odds ratios increased to 2.77 (a 177 percent greater risk) among men who used more than one kind of supplement, and to 2.56 among men who used supplements three years or longer. Men who started using supplements at age 25 or younger also had an elevated associated odds ratio of 2.21, the researchers calculated.

“Considering the magnitude of the association and the observed dose-response trends, muscle-building supplements use may be an important and modifiable exposure that could have important scientific and clinical importance for preventing testicular germ cell cancer development if this association is confirmed by future studies,” the authors conclude in the study.

Future large epidemiologic studies and lab experiments would be necessary to establish a causal link between supplements and testicular cancer.

N Li, R Hauser, T Holford, Y Zhu, Y Zhang, B A Bassig, S Honig, C Chen, P Boyle, M Dai, S M Schwartz, P Morey, H Sayward, Z Hu, H Shen, P Gomery and T Zheng
Muscle-building supplement use and increased risk of testicular germ cell cancer in men from Connecticut and Massachusetts
British Journal of Cancer 112, 1247-1250 (31 March 2015)| doi:10.1038/bjc.2015.26


Last Updated on November 14, 2022