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Early hair loss and PC

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Posted 12/16/2013 2:06 AM (GMT 0)
After reading many articles that correlate high testosterone levels with baldness and high testosterone levels with prostate cancer, I got to wondering------How many guys on here that were diagnosed under the age of 50 experienced early hair loss? I would consider "early hair loss" to be under the age of 30. I know I started thinning at around 21. Had a peninsula around 24, island by 26, and crusty the clown by 30. Diagnosed at 39 with prostate cancer. If you were diagnosed after you were 50, when did you start balding if at all? Thanks for your input.
Posted 12/16/2013 2:12 AM (GMT 0)
I started losing my hair early....just after I got married...go figure. I also had a bout of prostatitis in my late 20's and was one of the few to have a DRE before 30. I have understood that these are, to some unproven extent, warning signs of PCa.
Posted 12/16/2013 2:15 AM (GMT 0)
Diagnosed at 56, T at the lower end of the range but normal, no balding issues at all. In fact, on Lupron, it got thicker.
Posted 12/16/2013 2:18 AM (GMT 0)
I've still got my hair and I like watching romantic comedies so I doubt that my testosterone is high. Going by the men in the prostate support group, I don't notice any difference with baldness or any of the traits that one might associate with high testosterone than would be present in the general population.
Posted 12/16/2013 2:33 AM (GMT 0)
cdm39,

It works the other way. Low testosterone (hypogonadism) is associated with prostate cancer.

- Allen
Posted 12/16/2013 2:33 AM (GMT 0)
Diagnosed at 41. Only somewhat receding hairline, not more than most guys my age (and very consistent with others in my family).

-Gedman
Posted 12/16/2013 2:38 AM (GMT 0)
Diagnosed at 55, T around 400, hair thinning just like my maternal grandfather's did, but still pretty well covered. I haven't been on HT long enough to tell if it's changing that pattern or not.
Posted 12/16/2013 3:21 AM (GMT 0)
Tall, I am probably wrong but I am under the belief that PC is only linked to low T when men are taking supplements to raise their T levels. Either these supplements or naturally occurring high T is the link associated with prostate cancer.
Posted 12/16/2013 3:50 AM (GMT 0)
I'm with 142....No thinning hair...no gray hair as well...
Posted 12/16/2013 4:37 AM (GMT 0)
 

 "am under the belief that PC is only linked to low T when men are taking supplements"

My T is what some would call low. Never had any reason to have it tested until I was ready to start Lupron, so never wasted the money. And never wasted money on supplements.

There is no factual evidence to back up such a supposition that I know of.

Posted 12/16/2013 4:54 AM (GMT 0)
My bf just diagnosed this summer with PC at age 48. Gleason 6. DiVinci 10/21/13.
He has a great head of hair with very little grey so far
Posted 12/16/2013 5:00 AM (GMT 0)
Was mostly grey by early 30's, and balding. Wasn't dx until 56.
Posted 12/16/2013 6:06 AM (GMT 0)
At 53 I have a disgustingly full head of hair and not a single grey one.

however, if I grow a beard, it is fully grey.

so I shave my face every day and taunt friends with my youthful hair. Right now I am expecting another year before I go grey on top. I have noticed a thinning to my hair.

but as my father told me after I mentioned I thought my hair was thinning, "Good, no one wants fat hair."

Andrew
Posted 12/16/2013 10:18 AM (GMT 0)

cdm39 said...
Tall, I am probably wrong but I am under the belief that PC is only linked to low T when men are taking supplements to raise their T levels. Either these supplements or naturally occurring high T is the link associated with prostate cancer.

No - the opposite seems to be true. It's a common misconception, though. The preponderance of studies find that naturally occurring low T levels (hypogonadism) has been associated with both incidence and virulence of prostate cancer. Testosterone is thought to have a protective effect in keeping healthy prostate cells healthy.

Here are a few references if you want to learn more about it:

Is low serum free testosterone a marker for high grade prostate cancer?

The Clinical Potential of Pretreatment Serum Testosterone Level to Improve the Efficiency of Prostate Cancer Screening

Prevalence of prostate cancer among hypogonadal men with prostate-specific antigen levels of 4.0 ng/mL or less

Serum testosterone level as a predictor of biochemical failure after radical prostatectomy for localized prostate cancer

Lower Serum Total Testosterone is Associated with Lymph Node Metastases in a Radical Prostatectomy Cohort Study

Low testosterone levels are related to poor prognosis factors in men with prostate cancer prior to treatment

Usefulness of Preoperative Serum Testosterone as a Predictor of Extraprostatic Extension and Biochemical Recurrence

High Incidence of Predominant Gleason Pattern 4 Localized Prostate Cancer is Associated With Low Serum Testosterone

Circulating free testosterone is an independent predictor of advanced disease in patients with clinically localized prostate cancer

Low serum testosterone levels are predictive of prostate cancer

Similarly, supplementing testosterone (TRT) has never been shown to increase the risk of PC in non-castrate men.

Is Testosterone Treatment Good for the Prostate? Study of Safety during Long-Term Treatment

There is a clinical trial at Johns Hopkins now where they are supplementing T during the off-cycle of intermittent ADT to see if that will extend the time until the cancer becomes castrate resistant (see my post in the linked thread below).

www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=35&m=2738368

- Allen

(fixed broken links)

Post Edited (Tall Allen) : 12/16/2013 11:19:48 AM (GMT-7)

Posted 12/16/2013 10:58 AM (GMT 0)
TA, I haven´t seen in a few studies that I opend a correction for age. T levels decrease with age naturally, and older men have more chances to be diagnosed with Gleason 4 disease, simply because there was more time for cancer to develop and mutate, this is also a fact. I would like to see these studies LowT vs agressive PC done by age groups.
Posted 12/16/2013 1:49 PM (GMT 0)
cdm: Started loosing my hair badly at 23, (hair transplant at age 25), cancer at 58 -Gleason 3+3. Must have had PCa for 8 years prior based on my PSA numbers. I have always wondered about this also. My maternal grandfather died of PCa at age 67 and was bald like me (Crusty the Clown type). My brother-in-law had PCa and also had balding issues. Years ago, I read several articles that did find a link between PCa and baldness and this was a main factor in my watching my PSA so closely.

Bill K. from Nj
Posted 12/16/2013 3:35 PM (GMT 0)
I'm with Andrew. Diagnosed at 50, I have thick bushy head of hair. I can't cut it too short or it sticks straight out unless I paste it down with gel. Very little in the way of grey.

I had a beard for more than 20 years and it was going quite grey. I shaved it off this summer and women started commenting on how I look 10 years younger - my wife wants me to grow it back.
Posted 12/16/2013 5:27 PM (GMT 0)
My father, diagnosed at 52 had a shiny spot on the back of his head but still had some hair when he died in his mid 80s.

I, diagnosed at 54 have a shiny spot on the back of my head.

My younger brother, diagnosed on his 50th birthday has typical male pattern baldness.

My youngest brother, as yet undiagnosed at 49, would have typical male pattern baldness if he wasn't shaving his head.

My brother's seem to follow the hair loss pattern from our maternal side while I seem to be favoring the paternal side. I've never heard of PCa on the balder maternal side of the family but I understand that my father's father (no baldness) had been diagnosed with PCa sometime before he died of heart failure in his late 80s.
Posted 12/16/2013 6:00 PM (GMT 0)
Special Lady,

It is suspected that the age-related decline in T levels is the very reason that both incidence and virulence of PC increase as we age. The mechanism driving this has been investigated in lab studies, several of which show that normal T levels seem necessary to maintain apoptosis (lack of apoptosis is a hallmark of cancer.) One theory proposed by Richmond Prehn of UW is called "compensatory hyperplasia":

Prehn said...
A different hypothesis, that I shall put forward in this paper, is that declining androgen levels play a causative role in prostatic carcinogenesis. The hypothesis is based, in large part, upon the fact that prostatic-tumor incidence is the most age dependent of any tumor incidence: the incidence rises as the 9th or 10th power of age . Simultaneously, as individuals age and the risk of prostate cancer rises, the androgen levels fall. Thus, the older the individual, the greater is the risk of prostate cancer and the lower is the level of androgen, a relationship that argues that an unusually high androgen level may not be a causative factor in the origin of a prostate cancer. This relationship between prostate cancer and aging suggests that it may be a falling rather than an elevated level of androgen that facilitates prostate oncogenesis. The mechanism by which a falling androgen level may be instrumental in the genesis of prostate cancers probably involves compensatory hyperplasia.

On the Prevention and Therapy of Prostate Cancer by Androgen Administration

- Allen
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