Prospective study of cytomegalovirus serostatus and prostate cancer risk in the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial

Abstract

To investigate serologic evidence of infection by cytomegalovirus (CMV), a herpesvirus with known oncogenic potential that has been detected in malignant prostate tissue, in relation to prostate cancer (PCa) risk in a large case-control study nested in the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT). Cases were men with a confirmed diagnosis of PCa after visit 2 (n=614), and controls were men not diagnosed with PCa during the trial who also had a negative end-of-study biopsy (n=616). Controls were frequency-matched to cases by age, treatment arm, and family history of PCa. Sera from visit 2 were tested for CMV IgG antibodies. No association was observed between CMV serostatus and PCa risk (adjusted CMV seroprevalence=67.9% for cases and 65.2% for controls, odds ratio=1.13, 95% CI 0.89-1.45). Considering our null findings in the context of the full CMV literature, CMV infection, as measured by serostatus, does not appear to increase PCa risk.