Risk of prostate and bladder cancers in patients with spinal cord injury: a population-based cohort study

To evaluate the risk of prostate and bladder cancers in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI).

We used data obtained from the National Health Insurance system of Taiwan for this study. The SCI cohort contained 54,401 patients with SCI, and each patient was randomly frequency matched with 4 people from the general population (without SCI) based on age, sex, and index date. Incidence rates, SCI cohort to non-SCI cohort rate ratios, and hazard ratios were measured to evaluate the cancer risks.

Patients with SCI showed a significantly lower risk of developing prostate cancer compared with subjects without SCI (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.73; 95% confidence interval = 0.59, 0.90), after accounting for the competing risk of death. No significant difference in the risk of bladder cancer emerged between the SCI and control groups. Further analyses found a higher spinal level of SCI tended to predict a lower risk for prostate cancer.

Patients with SCI incurred a lower risk for prostate cancer compared with people without SCI. The risk for bladder cancer did not differ between people with or without SCI.