Agent Orange Raises Vietnam Vets' Risk of Recurrent Prostate Cancer

ByABC News
March 23, 2008, 11:57 PM

Mar. 23 -- SUNDAY, May 20 (HealthDay News) -- Exposure four decades ago to Agent Orange in the Vietnam War appears to boost veterans' risk for a recurrence of prostate cancer even after the organ is surgically removed, a new study shows.

And if the cancer does return, it tends to be more aggressive among veterans exposed to Agent Orange than in those not exposed to the chemical defoliant, the researchers found.

Black veterans are especially vulnerable to these tough-to-treat recurrences, the researchers said.

"This means that we need to make sure that these patients are not lost to follow-up, that their PSAs [prostate specific antigen levels] are checked regularly and that Vietnam veterans are screened aggressively for prostate cancer," said lead researcher Dr. Sagar Shah, a urology resident physician at the Medical College of Georgia. "The quicker that we catch [a recurrence], the more treatment options we have."

Shah's team was to present its findings Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association, in Anaheim, Calif.

Agent Orange was used to clear dense jungle cover during the Vietnam War. It contains dioxin, which, Shah said, "isn't really a tumor mutagen -- it doesn't cause cancer -- but it is a tumor-promoter. So, if the cancer is there, it makes it more prominent."

Exposure to dioxin and Agent Orange has long been linked to increased risks for a variety of malignancies, including leukemias, lymphomas, prostate cancer and lung tumors, according to Phil Kraft, program director for the National Veterans Services Fund, which lobbies on behalf of U.S. veterans.

"Agent Orange -- and its bad-guy ingredient, dioxin -- affects everyone who is exposed genetically," he said.

In the new study, Shah's team sought to determine if there were any differences in the rate or type of prostate cancer recurrences seen among a group of 1,653 black and white Vietnam veterans -- 199 of whom had been exposed to Agent Orange. All of the veterans were treated after first being diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1990 and 2006. Their treatment included surgical removal of the prostate gland.