Personal care products exposure patterns and prostate cancer: evidence from a case-control study in Mexico City.

Summary

In 400 cases and 801 controls, high and intermediate personal care product use patterns were associated with higher odds of prostate cancer, and intermediate use correlated with poorly differentiated tumors. Daily perfume use emerged as the most consistently associated individual product.

Key Findings

• High PCP exposure pattern was associated with increased prostate cancer odds (OR 2.6; 95% CI 1.8–3.8) versus low exposure.
• Intermediate PCP exposure pattern showed a modest association with prostate cancer (OR 1.3; 95% CI 1.0–1.8).
• Intermediate exposure was significantly associated with poorly differentiated prostate cancer (OR 1.8; 95% CI 1.1–2.9).
• Daily perfume use was the most consistently associated individual product with prostate cancer risk.

Clinical Implications

Clinicians should consider counseling on potential risks of frequent PCP use, especially fragrances, while advocating balanced sun and skin-care practices; findings warrant biomonitoring and product reformulation research.

Limitations

• Self-reported product use prone to recall/misclassification bias; lack of biomarker verification
• Case-control design limits causal inference; potential residual confounding and limited generalizability beyond Mexico City

Future Directions

Prospective cohorts with repeated biospecimens to quantify specific PCP chemicals (e.g., phthalates, parabens, UV filters), exposure–response relationships, and gene–environment interactions; intervention studies on product reformulation.