Association between Chlamydia trachomatis Infection and Prostate Cancer: A Case-Control Study

Article Type Original Research Authors Neda Baseri MSc1 ,2 ,3* Gita Eslami, PhD1 Zohreh Ghalavand, PhD1 Hanieh Zham, PhD4 Eznollah Azargashb, PhD5 How to cite this article Baseri N., Eslami G., Ghalavand Z., Zham H., Azargashb E.Association between Chlamydia trachomatis Infection and Prostate Cancer: A Case-Control Study. Infection Epidemiology and Microbiology. 2021;7(4): 319-326 1 Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 2 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Research Center for Emerging and Reemerging infectious diseases, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran 3 National Reference laboratory for Plague, Tularemia and Q fever, Research Center for Emerging and Reemerging infectious diseases, Pasture Institute of Iran, Akanlu, Kabudar Ahang, Hamadan, Iran 4 Cancer research center, Shohada-e Tajrishh Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 5 Department of community Medicine and Heaith, school of medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran * Correspondence Address: Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran nedabaseri@modares.ac.ir Article History Received: October 05 2021 Accepted: August 17 ,2021 Published: November 25 ,2021 Background: Evidence indicating the association of cancers and chronic inflammations is increasing. The importance of urinary tract and sexually transmitted infections (UTIs and STIs) in the development of prostate cancer is still unclear. Chlamydia trachomatis (C. trachomatis) is one of the most important causes of UTIs and STIs. Here, a case-control study was performed on the Iranian population to assess the association between C. trachomatis and prostate cancer (PC). Materials & Methods: Paraffin-embedded prostate tissue specimens collected from 62 PC and 62 PBH (benign prostate hyperplasia) (as controls) patients were screened to detect C. trachomatis 16srRNA gene using nested polymerase chain reaction (nested PCR) method. A p-value < .05 was interpreted as a remarkable difference using SPSS statistical software Ver. 16. Findings: There was a significant difference regarding the prevalence of C. trachomatis (p < .001; OR=10.07; 95% CI [2.81-36.001]) between the PC (33.87%) and BPH (4.84%) samples. Furthermore, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels were statistically higher (p< .05) in C. trachomatis-positive patients than in patients with negative C. trachomatis. Conclusion: It could be concluded that patients with a history of C. trachomatis infections are more likely to develope PC. Therefore, early diagnosis and treatment of C. trachomatis infection may help the prevention of PC. Moreover, nested PCR is a suitable method for C. trachomatis detection in paraffin-embedded prostate tissue specimens. Copyright© 2021, TMU Press. This open-access article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License which permits Share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and Adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material) under the Attribution-NonCommercial terms. 10.52547/iem.7.4.319