Pregnancy exposure to BPA in plastic 'raises prostate cancer risk'

A study in mice has found prostate cancer is more likely to develop when exposure to BPA levels matches that typical for pregnant women, according to researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) investigating concerns over the chemical used in water bottles.

Gail Prins, professor of physiology and director of the andrology laboratory at the UIC College of Medicine, says BPA levels are almost impossible to avoid - the plasticizer is found in water bottles, soup can liners and paper receipts.

Her study - using human prostate cells in the rodents, and published in the journal Endocrinology - suggests that exposure of male fetuses to BPA (bisphenol A) could lead to a later-life higher risk of prostate cancer.

Dr. Prins, who specializes in basic research into hormonal control of the prostate gland's development, and is interested in its growth and function, says other research proves the difficulty of avoiding BPA:

"Previous studies have shown that people who avoided all contact with plastics or other BPA-containing objects for up to a month or more still had BPA in their urine, which means they must have come into contact with BPA in the last 24 to 48 hours, since it clears the body rather quickly. It's very hard to avoid."

The UIC research has investigated pregnancy exposure to BPA "because the chemical, which mimics the hormone estrogen, has been linked to several kinds of cancer, including prostate cancer, in rodent models."

Dr. Prins says: "Our research provides the first direct evidence that exposure to BPA during development, at the levels we see in our day-to-day lives, increases the risk for prostate cancer in human prostate tissue."

Study used human stem cells to create model of prostate

The use of human stem cells implanted into mice allowed the study to investigate whether prostate cancer develops in direct response to BPA exposure.

The cells had been taken from deceased young men, allowing any cancer cause-and-effect comparisons to be made in the animal models. One group of mice with human-tissue prostates was exposed to BPA while another was not.