科研之友
微信
新浪微博
Facebook
分享链接
摘要
Introduction: A positive association between vasectomy and prostate cancer risk has been observed in many case-control and cohort studies. However, additional studies reported no such association. Because clarification of the relationship between vasectomy and prostate cancer incidence is warranted, we retrieved recent high-quality cohort studies up to 2016 to perform an updated meta-analysis to reevaluate this relationship. Methods: We searched online databases, including PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library and Google Scholar, to identify suitable studies through the end of October 2016 with no lower date limit. Summary relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were obtained using a random effects model. Results: Fourteen studies proved eligible for inclusion, including 21,125 cases and 1,711,788 participants. The pooled RR estimate of 1.07 (95% CI: 0.99-1.16) suggested the absence of a significant association between prostate cancer risk and vasectomy (P = 0.08). However, significant heterogeneity was observed in our study (I-2 = 61%, P < 0.05). To reduce or explain the high heterogeneity, we conducted a subgroup analysis among the studies using the follow-up duration in years and the different geographic locations of the participants. Furthermore, we performed a sensitivity analysis to assess the heterogeneity by removing one study at a time. When two studies were excluded, the heterogeneity of the remaining 12 studies was acceptable. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that vasectomy is not associated with prostate cancer risk and support vasectomy as a safe contraception method in men.
- 出版日期2018
