SUNSET PARK/MANHATTAN — AN NYU LANGONE STUDY FOUND small bits of plastic, known as microplastics, in 90% of samples of cancerous prostate tissue, compared to 70% of samples of non-cancerous tissue. In addition, the cancerous tissue contained roughly 2.5 times the amount of plastic as the healthy prostate tissue samples (about 40 micrograms of plastic per gram of tissue compared with 16 micrograms per gram). The small study was led by researchers at NYU Langone Health, its Perlmutter Cancer Center, and its Center for the Investigation of Environmental Hazards, according to a release.
The study’s lead author, Dr. Stacy Loeb, professor in the NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s Departments of Urology and Population Health, said the early data suggests a link between microplastics and other health conditions such as heart disease and dementia, but little direct evidence had previously connected it to prostate cancer.
“Our pilot study provides important evidence that microplastic exposure may be a risk factor for prostate cancer,” Loeb said. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among American men.
