VietNow National Magazine
Agent Orange
Agent Orange: Another
Link to Cancer
Prostate cancer rate twice
as high in Vietnam veterans exposed to
Agent Orange.
By Kathlyn Stone
The twenty million gallons of dioxin-laden
Agent Orange sprayed in Vietnam in the
nineteen-sixties and early seventies, to
kill the heavy foliage, continues to hurt
American soldiers and Vietnamese citizens.
A study of more than thirteen thousand
Vietnam veterans who served between 1962
and 1971, found that prostate cancer occurs
twice as often in those who were exposed
to the toxin Agent Orange, compared to
those who were not exposed to the herbicide. In
addition, Agent Orange-exposed veterans
were diagnosed two-and-a-half years younger,
and were nearly four times more likely
to develop more aggressive forms of cancer
compared with those who were not exposed.
Other prostate cancer risk factors such
as race, body mass index, and smoking were
not statistically different between the
two groups.
The findings, to be published in the journal,
Cancer, are the first to reliably link
the herbicide with prostate cancer through
a large population study, according to
researchers at the University of California-Davis
Cancer Center. The men in the study, all
in their sixties, are enrolled in the VA
Northern California Health Care System.
They were screened with the prostate-specific
antigen (PSA) test used as a tool for early
diagnosis and tracking of prostate cancer.
“While others have linked Agent Orange
to cancers such as soft-tissue sarcomas,
Hodgkin’s disease and non-Hodgkin’s
lymphoma, there is limited evidence so
far associating it with prostate cancer,” said
Karim Chamie, lead author of the study
and resident physician with the UC Davis
Department of Urology and the VA Northern
California Health Care System. “Here
we report on the largest study to date
of Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent
Orange, and the incidence of prostate cancer.”
“Just as those with a family history
of prostate cancer,
or who are of African-American heritage,
are screened more frequently, so too should
men with Agent Orange exposure be given
priority consideration for all the screening
and diagnostic tools we have at our disposal,
in the hopes of
early detection and treatment of this disease,” said
study co-author Ralph deVere White, UC
Davis Cancer Center director in a written
statement. (Symptoms of prostate cancer
may include problems passing urine, low
back pain, or painful ejaculation, according
to the National Institutes of Health.)
Some cancer physicians were skeptical
of the findings, and suggested that increased
screening for prostate cancer resulted
in the higher than normal rates of occurrence.
Prostate cancer is the second most common
form of cancer, and the second leading
cause of cancer death in American men.
It is estimated that there will be about
192,280 new cases of prostate cancer in
the United States
in 2009, with about 27,360 deaths from
the disease.
Agent Orange was one of several defoliants
containing dioxin tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin
(TCDD) used in Vietnam. It is estimated
that more than twenty million gallons of
the chemicals were sprayed between 1962
and 1971, contaminating not only ground
cover but U.S. soldiers and Vietnamese
citizens. Thirty years after the U.S. military
left Vietnam, the country still has 150,000
children with birth defects believed to
be a result of their parents’ exposure
to Agent Orange.
Writer Kathlyn Stone specializes in
health and science news and trends.
She writes for physician publications
specializing in neurology, oncology,
and radiology. Visit her web site at www.fleshandstone.
Back to the
Magazine page.
Back
to top of page.
VietNow
National
1835 Broadway – Rockford, Illinois
61104
800.837.VNOW – 815.227.5100
nationalhq@vietnow.com
We can't continue our work without
your help.
Please click here to donate
now.
|
