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According to a report in the October issue of the urology journal "BJU International" men with prostate cancer are on average four times more likely to get hip fractures. The study included more than 60,000 men aged 50 to 65.

Danish researchers discovered that prostate cancer made men 1.8 times more likely overall to suffer a fracture and 3.7 times as likely to suffer from a hip fracture. Hip fractures, however, were eight times higher in men from 50 to 65 years of age.

"Our study showed that more than three percent of hip fractures in men aged 50 and over can be attributed to prostate cancer" says lead researcher Dr. Bo Abrahamsen from Copenhagen University Hospital, Gentofte. "And the risk remains even when men have recovered from the disease."

The researchers - urologists and endocrinologists from Danish hospitals attached to the University of Southern Denmark and Copenhagen University - plan to establish a multi-center initiative that will look at the early diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis in men with prostate cancer.

"Prostate cancer is now the cancer that men are most likely to develop and is a leading cause of male deaths in Europe and the USA," said Dr. Abrahamsen. "American research has also shown that men have a 17 percent chance of prostate cancer during their lifetime. And Danish research has discovered that deaths from the disease have more than tripled since the World War II. Medical advances are improving survival rates, but the downside is that treatment can lead to osteoporosis, where the bone loses density and becomes more fragile. This is turn increases the risk of fractures."

Steen Walter, Professor of Urology at Odense University Hospital, said the research showed that the increased fracture risk became apparent in the early stages after diagnosis and "remained pronounced even in long-term survivors" He added that men who received hormone therapy or had their testicles surgically removed to slow the progression of the disease were 1.7 times more likely to suffer a fracture."