An epidemiologic study of gonorrhea and cancer of the prostate gland

Trends in age specific mortality rates from prostatic cancer could be explained by exposure to a carcinogenic condition that stopped sometime in the past. It is hypothesized that gonococcal infection in the prechemotherapy preantibiotic times and the resultant iatrogenic complications may be related to development of cancer of the prostate later in life. Death rate curves for prostatic cancer and incidence curves for gonorrhea in Denmark match well with a lag period of 45 yr. Spectral analysis gave a lag period of 42 yr and a coherence coefficient that differed from zero at level p < 0.05. If the relationship demonstrated in this paper is of causal nature, one could predict a continuing decline of mortality from prostatic cancer due to attrition of the cohort that received the old treatment.