Can circumcision prevent prostate cancer?

Researchers fire another salvo in the war over circumcision, claiming that the controversial procedure is linked to lower cancer rates later in life

Men who were circumcised before having sex for the first time (as most circumcised men are) are 15 percent less likely to develop prostate cancer later in life, researchers say.
(Image credit: Jose Luis Pelaez, Inc./Blend Images/Corbis)

To circumcise or not to circumcise? It's a fraught question for many parents of newborn boys. On one side are religious and cultural traditions favoring the snipping away of a baby's foreskin, and on the other are "intactivists," or anti-circumcision crusaders who consider the practice a form of genital mutilation. Then there are the medical arguments, which are... inconclusive. Adding to the muddle is a new study in the journal Cancer showing that circumcised men have lower rates of prostate cancer, the most common male cancer in the U.S. Here's what you should know:

What exactly did the study show?

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

What's the link between circumcision and cancer?

The researchers aren't entirely sure. Uncircumcised men have been shown to have an increased risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV/AIDS, probably because the foreskin is more likely to tear, and because it creates a moist environment at the tip of the penis that may allow germs to survive for extended periods. One theory posits that STIs inflame the prostate, making it susceptible to the growth of cancer cells. Some 20 percent of cancers worldwide are reportedly caused by infections, directly or indirectly.

Does this mean all boys should be circumcised?

No. The study doesn't purport to show a cause-and-effect relationship between circumcision and cancer. "That would be a huge jump," urologist Louis Kavoussi tells WebMD. "There are good reasons to get circumcised, but prostate cancer prevention is not one of them." Some urologists, like Kavoussi, recommend circumcision as a way to reduce STIs and penile cancer. But the evidence for those benefits is weak, and the operation to remove foreskin can cause its own infections. That's why the American Academy of Pediatrics doesn't recommend routine circumcision. The bottom line, says Alexandra Sifferlin at TIME, is that "parents debating whether to circumcise their newborn baby boys still have a difficult decision to make."

Sources: CNN, Huffington Post, TIME, WebMD