A case-control study of chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome and colorectal cancer

OBJECTIVE To estimate the association between chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) and colorectal cancer (CRC) using a nationwide population-based data set. PATIENTS AND METHODS This case-control study used data sourced from the Taiwan Longitudinal Health Insurance Database. The cases comprised 2899 patients with CRC and 14 995 randomly selected subjects as controls. We used conditional logistic regression to examine the association between CRC and previous diagnosis of CP/CPPS. RESULTS Of the sampled patients, 531(3.05%) had been diagnosed with CP/CPPS before the index date, with 123 (4.24% of the patients with CRC) coming from the cases and 408 individuals (2.81% of patients without CRC) coming from the controls. Conditional logistic regression analysis revealed that cases were more likely to have CP/CPPS than controls (odds ratio 1.45, 95% CI 1.17-1.79, P < 0.001) after adjusting for the monthly income, geographic location, urbanization level, hypertension, diabetes, renal disease, obesity and cystic kidney disease. In subgroup analysis, we found the magnitude of the association to be higher in subjects younger than 60 years (age 40-49, odds ratio 2.01; 95% CI 2.04-3.58 and aged 50-59, 2.40, 95% CI 1.48-3.87, both P < 0.001) than among other age groups. CONCLUSION We conclude that CP/CPPS patients are at higher risk for CRC, especially in males under 60 years of age.