The size of the index: an indicator of the cancer of the prostate

Gentlemen, look well at your fingers...

According to a survey led by the scientists of the Research institute on the cancer (ICR), if your index is longer than your ring-finger, you have less luck to develop a cancer of the prostate from the next years on.

Of 1994 to 2009, the researchers compared the length of the fingers of 1.500 British affected by the cancer of the prostate with those of 3.000 men in good health.

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" Our results show that the length of the fingers can be used like a very simple test to measure the risk of cancer, notably at the men aged of less than 60 years" explains the deputy director of the survey, Ros Eeles.

If you are less than 60 years old and that your index is longer than your ring-finger, the risk that you developed a cancer of the prostate reduces 87%. If you are aged of more than 60 years, the risk reduces 33%.

The length of the index is determined before the birth and the scientists think that it is relative to the level of sexual hormones during pregnancy.

Less the boys are exposed to the testosterone, more their index will be long and more they will be protected against the cancer of the prostate, explain the researchers of the IRC to the BBC.

"This exciting discovery means that the size of the fingers can be used to select the men to risks and to diagnose them, maybe in combination with other factors, as the historic domestic or the genetic tests." Be enthusiastic Emma Halls, director of Prostate UK.

   http://www.icr.ac.uk/    ICR home page.

...In the western world, the cancer of the prostate is today one of the first reasons of premature mortality at the men of more than 50 years...