Being bald may mean more than just hair loss; it may also speak about prostate health. In fact, a new study found that male pattern baldness may indicate increased risk of prostate cancer death.

Men with any form of balding were found to have a 56 percent higher risk of deadly prostate cancer than those with no balding at all. Those with moderate balding are also associated with an even higher risk of 83 percent.

"Our analysis suggests that patterned hair loss is associated with a higher risk of fatal prostate cancer and supports the hypothesis of overlapping pathophysiological mechanisms," the researchers wrote.

Baldness And Prostate Cancer

The link between baldness and prostate cancer is not exactly new. Male hormone androgens are known to play a role in both baldness and prostate cancer. Both conditions are also recognized to have genetic origins.

Despite such associations, experts still believe that the main risk factors of prostate cancer include older age, family history, black race and genetic mutations.

The results of the new study then raise an important point that supports the role of biological mechanisms in both balding and prostate cancer.

Baldness Test To Be A Part Of Prostate Cancer Screening

Co-author Cindy Zhou says it is not yet time to recommend screening tweaks based on their study findings. She adds that they will need more research to replicate the results.

Michael Cook, another co-author agrees, but he says their study signals that in the future male baldness may play a part in determining prostate cancer risks.

Another doctor from the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute named Stephen Freedland thinks the findings are vital yet modest. This means that the association between baldness and prostate cancer death risk is so much lower than the association between smoking and lung cancer death risk. Freedland was not involved in the study.

For baldness to be considered part of prostate cancer screening, studies must show that taking into account a man's baldness enhances experts' abilities to determine prostate cancer risks more effectively than existing risk factors, says Zhou.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among men in the U.S. The disease is also one of the top causes of deaths among men in all races and Hispanic origin populations.

The study was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Photo: Anders Printz | Flickr