In a new study, researchers found microplastics deep inside prostate cancer tumors, raising more questions about the role the ubiquitous pollutants play in public health.
The findings — which come from a small study of 10 men — were presented Monday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Genitourinary Cancers Symposium and have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
In the study, researchers analyzed tissue samples taken from 10 men with prostate cancer, with an average age of 65, whose prostate had been removed as part of their treatment for the disease. They also analyzed noncancerous tissue taken from the opposite side of the organ.
Microplastics were present in 90% of the tumors and 70% of the noncancerous samples. The cancerous tissue contained 2.5 times the amount of plastic on average than the noncancerous tissue with approximately 40 micrograms of plastic per gram of tissue.
Read Full Article Here
