Associations between Etiologic or Prognostic Tumor Tissue Markers and Neighborhood Contextual Factors in Male Health Professionals Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer.

Background: There is growing evidence that unfavorable neighborhood contexts may influence prostate cancer progression. Whether these associations may be explained in part by differences in tumor-level somatic alterations remain unclear.

Methods: Data on tumor markers (PTEN, p53, ERG, and SPINK1) were obtained from 1,157 participants with prostate cancer in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Neighborhood greenness, socioeconomic status, and the income Index of Concentration at Extremes were obtained from satellite and census data and linked to participants' address at diagnosis and at study enrollment. Exposures were scaled to an interquartile range and modeled as tertiles. Bivariate associations between tertiles of neighborhood factors and tumor markers were assessed in covariate adjusted logistic regression models to estimate ORs and 95% confidence intervals.

Results: There was no association between any of the neighborhood contextual factors and PTEN, p53, ERG, or SPINK1 in bivariate or multivariable adjusted models. Results were generally consistent when modeling exposure using exposure at diagnosis or at study enrollment.

Conclusions: In this multilevel study of men with prostate cancer, we found no evidence of associations between neighborhood context and tumor tissue markers.

Impact: Our results provide some of the first empirical data in support of the hypothesis that prostate cancer risk conferred by tumor tissue markers may arise independently of underlying neighborhood context. Prospective studies in more diverse populations are needed to confirm these findings.