Bariatric Surgery Significantly Increases Prostate Cancer Screening Rate

Brown N, Alexander AJ, Horns JJ, et al. Impact of Bariatric Surgery on Prostate Cancer Screening Rate. J Am Coll Surg. November 2025.

Patients with obesity are at a greater risk of developing more aggressive forms of prostate cancer. Bariatric surgery has been demonstrated to reduce that risk; however, the exact mechanism of this protective effect is not known. Noah Brown, MD, and colleagues examined the relationship between bariatric surgery and prostate cancer screening rates using a national insurance database.

13,662 US men, aged 50 to 65 years who underwent bariatric surgery, were identified and compared to three control groups who did not undergo bariatric surgery, stratified by obesity diagnosis according to ICD codes. Multivariable Poisson regression was used to assess the rate of prostate cancer screening for each group, adjusting for demographic factors and comorbidities.

For surgical patients, rate of screening prior to bariatric surgery was 0.07 tests per person-year and improved to 0.17 tests per person-year following surgery (p <0.001). For control groups, screening rates were 0.08, 0.13, and 0.11 tests per person-year for patients with no obesity, patients with obesity, and those with morbid obesity, respectively. The incidence rate ratio relative to the no obesity control group (95% CI) was 1.03 (0.97-1.10) for the pre-surgery group, 2.35 (2.21-2.50) for the post-surgery group, 1.66 (1.59-1.75) and 1.54 (1.47-1.62) for the obesity and morbid obesity groups, respectively.

These finding suggest that the rate of men in the US undergoing prostate cancer screening significantly increased following bariatric surgery—in fact, following their operation, the bariatric surgery patients became the most screened group. 

This substantial increase in screening rate after bariatric surgery suggests that bariatric surgery serves as an impetus for engaging with the healthcare system across other areas of care and that surgeons can play a key role in both responsive and preventive health for prostate cancer.