New research data suggests that veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange, the code name for a herbicide and defoliant used during the Vietnam War, have an increased risk of recurrence of aggressive prostate cancer. The Medical College of Georgia study of nearly 1,500 veterans who underwent radical prostatectomy to remove their cancerous prostates showed that the 206 people who were exposed to Agent Orange had nearly a 50% increased risk of their cancer returning, compared to non-exposed individuals. Once their cancers returned their PSA (prostate specific antigen) doubling time, a measure of cancer aggressiveness, was only 8 months, compared with 18 months in the exposed group.
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Tags: agent orange, prostate cancer, PSA, veterans, vietnam
Dr. Steven Chang, the author of DailyDose, is a staff physician with Kosmix RightHealth. Dr. Chang practices Family Medicine at the University of California Davis Medical Center, where his medical interests include both pediatric and geriatric care, public health, gay and lesbian health, and sleep medicine. Dr. Chang trained at the Stanford University affiliated O'Connor Hospital, and was a research fellow at the National Institute of Health. He holds an M.D. from McGill University and a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.