Health

Who Should Be Allowed a Medically Assisted Death?

Published

3 months ago

December 9, 2025

Who Should Be Allowed a Medically Assisted Death?

Ron Curtis, an English professor in Montreal, lived for 40 years with a degenerative spinal disease, in what he called the “black hole” of chronic pain.

On a July day in 2022, Mr. Curtis, 64, ate a last bowl of vegetable soup made by his wife, Lori, and, with the help of a palliative care doctor, died in his bedroom overlooking a lake.

Aron Wade, a successful 54-year-old stage and television actor in Belgium, decided he could no longer tolerate life with the depression that haunted him for three decades.

Last year, after a panel of medical experts found he had “unbearable mental suffering,” a doctor came to his home and gave him medicine to stop his heart, with his partner and two best friends at his side.

Argemiro Ariza was in his early 80s when he began to lose function in his limbs, no longer able to care for his wife, who had dementia, in their home in Bogotá.

Doctors diagnosed A.L.S., and he told his daughter Olga that he wanted to die while he still had dignity. His children threw him a party with a mariachi band and lifted him from his wheelchair to dance. A few days later, he admitted himself to a hospital, and a doctor administered a drug that ended his life.

Until recently, each of these deaths would have been considered a murder. But a monumental change is underway around the world. From liberal European countries to conservative Latin American ones, a new way of thinking about death is starting to take hold.

Stephanie Nolen is exploring access, attitudes and approaches to medically assisted death around the world.

Dec. 9, 2025

Over the past five years, the practice of allowing a physician to help severely ill patients end their lives with medication has been legalized in nine countries on three continents. Courts or legislatures, or both, are considering legalization in a half-dozen more, including South Korea and South Africa, as well as eight of the 31 American states where it remains prohibited.

It is a last frontier in the expansion of individual autonomy. More people are seeking to define the terms of their deaths in the same way they have other aspects of their lives, such as marriage and childbearing. This is true even in Latin America, where conservative institutions such as the Roman Catholic church are still powerful.

“We believe in the priority of our control over our bodies, and as a heterogeneous culture, we believe in choices: If your choice does not affect me, go ahead,” said Dr. Julieta Moreno Molina, a bioethicist who has advised Colombia’s Ministry of Health on its assisted dying regulations.

Yet, as assisted death gains more acceptance, there are major unresolved questions about who should be eligible. While most countries begin with assisted death for terminal illness, which has the most public support, this is often followed quickly by a push for wider access. With that push comes often bitter public debate.

Should someone with intractable depression be allowed an assisted death?

European countries and Colombia all permit people with irremediable suffering from conditions such as depression or schizophrenia to seek an assisted death. But in Canada, the issue has become contentious. Assisted death for people who do not have a reasonably foreseeable natural death was legalized in 2021, but the government has repeatedly excluded people with mental illness. Two of them are challenging the exclusion in court on the grounds that it violates their constitutional rights.

In public debate, supporters of the right to assisted death for these patients say that people who have lived with severe depression for years, and have tried a variety of therapies and medications, should be allowed to decide when they are no longer willing to keep pursuing treatments. Opponents, concerned that mental illness can involve a pathological wish to die, say it can be difficult to predict the potential effectiveness of treatments. And, they argue, people who struggle to get help from an overburdened public health service may simply give up and choose to die, though their conditions might have been improved.

Should a child with an incurable condition be able to choose assisted death?

The ability to consent is a core consideration in requesting assisted death. Only a handful of countries are willing to extend that right to minors. Even in the places that do, there are just a few assisted deaths for children each year, almost always children with cancer.

In Colombia and the Netherlands, children over 12 can request assisted death on their own. Parents can provide consent for children 11 and younger.

Denise de Ruijter took comfort in her Barbie dolls when she struggled to connect with people. She was diagnosed with autism and had episodes of depression and psychosis. As a teenager in a Dutch town, she craved the life her schoolmates had — nights out, boyfriends — but couldn’t manage it.

She attempted suicide several times before applying for an assisted death at 18. Evaluators required her to try three years of additional therapies before agreeing her suffering was unbearable. She died in 2021, with her family and Barbies nearby.

The issue is under renewed scrutiny in the Netherlands, where, over the past decade, a growing number of adolescents have applied for assisted death for relief from irremediable psychiatric suffering from conditions such as eating disorders and anxiety.

Most such applications by teens are either withdrawn by the patient, or rejected by assessors, but public concern over a few high-profile cases of teens who received assisted deaths prompted the country’s regulator to consider a moratorium on approvals for children applying on the basis of psychiatric suffering.

Should someone with dementia be allowed assisted death?

Many people dread the idea of losing their cognitive abilities and their autonomy, and hope to have an assisted death when they reach that point. But this is a more complex situation to regulate than for a person who can still make a clear request.

How can a person who is losing their mental capacity consent to dying? Most governments, and doctors, are too uncomfortable to permit it, even though the idea tends to be popular in countries with aging populations.

In Colombia, Spain, Ecuador and the Canadian province of Quebec, people who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or other kinds of cognitive decline can request assessment for an assisted death before they lose mental capacity, sign an advance request — and then have a physician end their life after they have lost the ability to consent themselves.

But that raises a separate, challenging, question: After people lose the capacity to request an assisted death, who should decide it’s time?

Their spouses? Their children? Their doctors? The government? Colombia entrusts families with this role. The Netherlands leaves it up to doctors — but many refuse to do it, unwilling to administer lethal drugs to a patient who can’t clearly articulate a rational wish to die.

Jan Grijpma was always clear with his daughter, Maria: When his mind went, he didn’t want to live any more. Maria worked with his longtime family doctor, in Amsterdam, to identify the point when Mr. Grijpma, 90 and living in a nursing home, was losing his ability to consent himself.

When it seemed close, in 2023, they booked the day, and he updated his day planner: Thursday, visit the vicar; Friday, bicycle with physiotherapy and get a haircut; Sunday, pancakes with Maria; Monday, euthanasia.

All of these questions are becoming part of the discussion as the right to control and plan one’s own death is pushed in front of reluctant legislatures and uneasy medical professionals.

Dr. Madeline Li, a Toronto psychiatrist, was given the task of developing the assisted-dying practice in one of Canada’s largest hospitals when the procedure was first decriminalized in 2015. She began with assessing patients for eligibility and then moved to providing medical assistance in dying, or MAID, as it is called in Canada. For some patients with terminal cancer, it felt like the best form of care she could offer, she said.

But then Canada’s eligibility criteria expanded, and Dr. Li found herself confronting a different kind of patient.

“To provide assisted dying to somebody dying of a condition who is not happy with how they’re going to die, I’m willing to assist them, and hasten that death,” she said. “I struggle more with people who aren’t dying and want MAID — I think then you’re assisting suicide. If you’re not dying — if I didn’t give you MAID, you wouldn’t otherwise die — then you’re a person who’s not unhappy with how you’re going to die. You’re unhappy with how you’re living.”

Who has broken the taboo?

For decades, Switzerland was the only country to permit assisted death; assisted suicide was legalized there in 1942. It took a further half century for a few more countries to loosen their laws. Now decriminalization of some form of assisted death has occurred across Europe.

But there has recently been a wave of legalization in Latin America, where Colombia was long an outlier, having allowed legal assisted dying since 2015.

Paola Roldán Espinosa had a thriving career in business in Ecuador, and a toddler, when she was diagnosed with A.L.S. in 2023. Her health soon deteriorated to the point that she needed a ventilator.

She wanted to die on her terms — and took the case to the country’s highest court. In February 2024, the court responded to her petition by decriminalizing assisted dying. Ms. Roldán, then 42, had the death she sought, with her family around her, a month later.

Ecuador has decriminalized assisted dying through constitutional court cases, and Peru’s Supreme Court has permitted individual exceptions to the law which prohibits the procedure, opening the door to expansion. Cuba’s national assembly legalized assisted dying in 2023, although no regulations on how the procedure will work are yet in place. In October, Uruguay’s parliament passed a long-debated law allowing assisted death for the terminally ill.

The first country in Asia to take steps toward legalization is South Korea, where a bill to decriminalize assisted death has been proposed at the National Assembly several times but has not come to a vote. At the same time, the Constitutional Court, which for years refused to hear cases on the subject, has agreed to adjudicate a petition from a disabled man with severe and chronic pain who seeks an assisted death.

Access in the United States remains limited: 11 jurisdictions (10 states plus the District of Columbia) allow assisted suicide or physician-assisted death, for patients who have a terminal diagnosis, and in some cases, only for patients who are already in hospice care. It will become legal in Delaware on Jan. 1, 2026.

In Slovenia, in 2024, 55 percent of the population who voted in a national referendum were in favor of legalizing assisted death, and parliament duly passed a law in July. But pushback from right-wing politicians then forced a new referendum, and in late November, 54 percent of those who voted rejected the legalization.

And in the United Kingdom, a bill to legalize assisted death for people with terminal illness has made its way slowly through parliament. It has faced fierce opposition from a coalition of more than 60 groups for people with disabilities, who argue they may face subtle coercion to end their lives rather than drain their families or the state of resources for their care.

Why now?

In many countries, decriminalization of assisted dying has followed the expansion of rights for personal choice in other areas, such as the removal of restrictions on same-sex marriage, abortion and sometimes drug use.

“I would expect it to be on the agenda in every liberal democracy,” said Wayne Sumner, a medical ethicist at the University of Toronto who studies the evolution of norms and regulations around assisted dying. “They’ll come to it at their own speed, but it follows with these other policies.”

The change is also being driven by a convergence of political, demographic and cultural trends.

As populations age, and access to health care improves, more people are living longer. Older populations mean more chronic disease, and more people living with compromised health. And they are thinking about death, and what they will — and won’t — be willing to tolerate in the last years of their lives.

At the same time, there is diminishing tolerance for suffering that is perceived as unnecessary.

“Until very recently, we were a society where few people lived past 60 — and now suddenly we live much longer,” said Lina Paola Lara Negrette, a psychologist who until October was the director of the Dying With Dignity Foundation in Colombia. “Now people here need to think about the system, and the services that are available, and what they will want.”

Changes in family structures and communities, particularly in rapidly urbanizing middle-income countries, mean that traditional networks of care are less strong, which shifts how people can imagine living in older age or with chronic illness, she added.

“When you had many siblings and a lot of generations under one roof, the question of care was a family thing,” she said. “That has changed. And it shapes how we think about living, and dying.”

How does assisted dying work?

Beyond the ethical dilemmas, actually carrying out legalized assisted deaths involves countless choices for countries. Spain requires a waiting period of at least 15 days between a patient’s assessments (but the average wait in practice is 75 days). In most other places, the prescribed wait is less than two weeks for patients with terminal conditions, but often longer in practice, said Katrine Del Villar, a professor of constitutional law at the Queensland University of Technology who tracks trends in assisted dying

Most countries allow patients to choose between administering the drugs themselves or having a health care provider do it. When both options are available, the overwhelming majority of people choose to have a health care provider end their life with an injection that stops their heart.

In many countries only a doctor can administer the drugs, but Canada and New Zealand permit nurse practitioners to provide medically assisted deaths too.

One Australian state prohibits medical professionals from raising the topic of assisted death. A patient must ask about it first.

Who determines eligibility is another issue. In the Netherlands, two physicians assess a patient; in Colombia, it’s a panel consisting of a medical specialist, a psychologist and a lawyer. The draft legislation in Britain would require both a panel and two independent physicians.

Switzerland and the states of Oregon and Vermont are the only jurisdictions in the world that explicitly allow people who are not residents access to assisted deaths.

Most countries permit medical professionals to conscientiously object to providing assisted deaths and allow faith-based medical institutions to refuse to participate. In Canada, individual professionals have the right to refuse, but a court challenge is underway seeking to end the ability of hospitals that are controlled by faith-based organizations and that operate with public funds to refuse to allow assisted deaths on their premises.

“Even when assisted dying has been legal and available somewhere for a long time, there can be a gap between what is legal and what is acceptable — what most physicians and patients and families feel comfortable with,” said Dr. Sisco van Veen, an ethicist and psychiatrist at Amsterdam Medical University. “And this isn’t static. It evolves over time.”

Jin Yu Young in Seoul, José Bautista in Madrid, José María León Cabrera in Quito, Veerle Schyns in Amsterdam and Koba Ryckewaert in Brussels contributed reporting.

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Health

ChatGPT could miss your serious medical emergency, new study suggests

Published

7 hours ago

March 2, 2026

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ChatGPT could miss your serious medical emergency, new study suggests

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This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Artificial intelligence has been touted as a boon to healthcare, but a new study has revealed its potential shortcomings when it comes to giving medical advice.

In January, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Health, the medical-focused version of the popular chatbot tool.

The company introduced the tool as “a dedicated experience that securely brings your health information and ChatGPT’s intelligence together, to help you feel more informed, prepared and confident navigating your health.”

But researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have found that the tool failed to recommend emergency care for a “significant number” of serious medical cases.

The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine on Feb. 23, aimed to explore how ChatGPT Health — which is reported to have about 40 million users daily — handles situations where people are asking whether to seek emergency care.

Artificial intelligence has been touted as a boon to healthcare, but a new study has revealed its potential shortcomings when it comes to giving medical advice. (iStock)

“Right now, no independent body evaluates these products before they reach the public,” lead author Ashwin Ramaswamy, M.D., instructor of urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, told Fox News Digital.

“We wouldn’t accept that for a medication or a medical device, and we shouldn’t accept it for a product that tens of millions of people are using to make health decisions.”

Emergency scenarios

The team created 60 clinical scenarios across 21 medical specialties, ranging from minor conditions to true medical emergencies.

Three independent physicians then assigned an appropriate level of urgency for each case, based on published clinical practice guidelines in 56 medical societies.

WOMAN SAYS CHATGPT SAVED HER LIFE BY HELPING DETECT CANCER, WHICH DOCTORS MISSED

The researchers conducted 960 interactions with ChatGPT Health to see how the tool responded, taking into account gender, race, barriers to care and “social dynamics.”

While “clear-cut emergencies” — such as stroke or severe allergy — were generally handled well, the researchers found that the tool “under-triaged” many urgent medical issues.

The team created 60 clinical scenarios across 21 medical specialties, ranging from minor conditions to true medical emergencies. (iStock)

For example, in one asthma scenario, the system acknowledged that the patient was showing early signs of respiratory failure — but still recommended waiting instead of seeking emergency care.

“ChatGPT Health performs well in medium-severity cases, but fails at both ends of the spectrum — the cases where getting it right matters most,” Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital. “It under-triaged over half of genuine emergencies and over-triaged roughly two-thirds of mild cases that clinical guidelines say should be managed at home.”

PARENTS FILE LAWSUIT ALLEGING CHATGPT HELPED THEIR TEENAGE SON PLAN SUICIDE

Under-triage can be life-threatening, the doctor noted, while over-triage can overwhelm emergency departments and delay care for those in real need.

Researchers also identified inconsistencies in suicide risk alerts. In some cases, it directed users to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in lower-risk scenarios, and in others, it failed to offer that recommendation even when a person discussed suicidal ideations.

“ChatGPT Health performs well in medium-severity cases, but fails at both ends of the spectrum.”

“The suicide guardrail failure was the most alarming,” study co-author Girish N. Nadkarni, M.D., chief AI officer of the Mount Sinai Health System, told Fox News Digital.

ChatGPT Health is designed to show a crisis intervention banner when someone describes thoughts of self-harm, the researcher noted.

OpenAI launched ChatGPT Health, the medical-focused version of the popular chatbot tool, in January 2026. (Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“We tested it with a 27-year-old patient who said he’d been thinking about taking a lot of pills,” Nadkarni said. “When he described his symptoms alone, the banner appeared 100% of the time. Then we added normal lab results — same patient, same words, same severity — and the banner vanished.”

“A safety feature that works perfectly in one context and completely fails in a nearly identical context … is a fundamental safety problem.”

CHATGPT HEALTH PROMISES PRIVACY FOR HEALTH CONVERSATIONS

The researchers were also surprised by the social influence aspect.

“When a family member in the scenario said ‘it’s nothing serious’ — which happens all the time in real life — the system became nearly 12 times more likely to downplay the patient’s symptoms,” Nadkarni said. “Everyone has a spouse or parent who tells them they’re overreacting. The AI shouldn’t be agreeing with them during a potential emergency.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Open AI, creator of ChatGPT, requesting comment.

Physicians react

Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, called the new study “important.”

“It underlines the principle that while large language models can triage clear-cut emergencies, they have much more trouble with nuanced situations,” Siegel, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital.

ChatGPT and other LLMs can be helpful tools, a doctor said, but they “should not be used to give medical direction.” (iStock)

“This is where doctors and clinical judgment come in — knowing the nuances of a patient’s history and how they report symptoms and their approach to health.”

ChatGPT and other LLMs can be helpful tools, Siegel said, but they “should not be used to give medical direction.”

“Machine learning and continued input of data can help, but will never compensate for the essential problem – human judgment is needed to decide whether something is a true emergency or not.”

BREAKTHROUGH BLOOD TEST COULD SPOT DOZENS OF CANCERS BEFORE SYMPTOMS APPEAR

Dr. Harvey Castro, an emergency physician and AI expert in Texas, echoed the importance of the study, calling it “exactly the kind of independent safety evaluation we need.”

“Innovation moves fast. Oversight has to move just as fast,” Castro, who also did not work on the study, told Fox News Digital. “In healthcare, the most dangerous mistakes happen at the extremes, when something looks mild but is actually catastrophic. That’s where clinical judgment matters most, and where AI must be stress-tested.”

Study limitations

The researchers acknowledged some potential limitations in the study design.

“We used physician-written clinical scenarios rather than real patient conversations, and we tested at a single point in time — these systems update frequently, so performance may change,” Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital.

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Additionally, most of the missed emergencies happened in situations where the danger depended on how the condition was changing over time. It’s not clear whether the same problem would happen with acute medical emergencies.

Because the system had to choose just one fixed urgency category, the test may not reflect the more nuanced advice it might give in a back-and-forth conversation, the researchers noted.

ChatGPT Health is designed to show a crisis intervention banner when someone describes thoughts of self-harm. (iStock)

Also, the study wasn’t large enough to confidently detect small differences in how recommendations might vary by race or gender.

“We need continuous auditing, not one-time studies,” Castro noted. “These systems update frequently, so evaluation must be ongoing.”

‘Don’t wait’

The researchers emphasized the importance of seeking immediate care for serious issues.

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“If something feels seriously wrong — chest pain, difficulty breathing, a severe allergic reaction, thoughts of self-harm — go to the emergency department or call 988,” Ramaswamy advised. “Don’t wait for an AI to tell you it’s OK.”

The researchers noted that they support the use of AI to improve healthcare access, and that they didn’t conduct the study to “tear down the technology.”

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“These tools can be genuinely useful for the right things — understanding a diagnosis you’ve already received, looking up what your medications do and their side effects, or getting answers to questions that didn’t get fully addressed in a short doctor’s visit,” Ramaswamy said.

“That’s a very different use case from deciding whether you need emergency care. Treat them as a complement to your doctor, not a replacement.”

“This study doesn’t mean we abandon AI in healthcare.”

Castro agreed that the benefits of AI health tools should be weighed against the risks.

“AI health tools can increase access, reduce unnecessary visits and empower patients with information,” he said. “They are not inherently unsafe, but they are not yet substitutes for clinical judgment.”

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“This study doesn’t mean we abandon AI in healthcare,” he went on. “It means we mature it. Independent testing and stronger guardrails will determine whether AI becomes a safety net or a liability.”

Melissa Rudy is senior health editor and a member of the lifestyle team at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to melissa.rudy@fox.com.

Health

Diabetes surge among Americans could be driven by ‘healthy’ breakfasts, doctor warns

Published

19 hours ago

March 1, 2026

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Diabetes surge among Americans could be driven by ‘healthy’ breakfasts, doctor warns

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Americans consume foods every day that are marketed as “healthy,” when they could be quietly destroying their health, one doctor warns.

Dr. Mark Hyman, physician and co-founder of Function Health in California, says that much of America’s daily diet is filled with unhealthy ingredients.

“The amount of refined starches and sugars that are everywhere is just staggering to me, given what we know about how harmful they are,” he shared in an interview with Fox News Digital. “I don’t think people really understand.”

Hyman, author of the new book “Food Fix Uncensored,” said he’s “astounded” by what people are eating, especially for breakfast.

“People just eat sugar for breakfast,” he said. “They have muffins, they have bagels, they have croissants, they have sugar-sweetened coffees and teas.”

Dr. Mark Hyman is the author of the new book “Food Fix Uncensored.” (Function Health; Little, Brown Spark)

In addition to the traditionally sweet options for breakfast, some cereal brands and breakfast staples have adopted new “protein-packed” menu items and products, following health trends that encourage eating more protein.

“Highly processed food is not food.”

“Now, we’re seeing this halo of protein in certain things,” Hyman said, mentioning that many protein smoothies are “full of sugar.”

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The doctor also noted that some popular cereals are now marketed as having protein in them. “My joke is, if it has a health claim on the label, it’s definitely bad for you,” he said.

Instead of starting the day with a “quick fix” or processed food, Hyman suggests choosing whole sources of protein and fat for breakfast, adding that “if there’s a little carbohydrate in there, it’s fine.”

More products marketed as “high protein” have cropped up on supermarket shelves. (iStock)

For his own breakfast, Hyman said he has a protein shake with whey protein, avocado and frozen berries. Eggs and avocados are also a great protein-and-fat combo option, he added.

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“It’s not that complicated — people need to just think about their breakfast not being dessert,” he said. “No wonder we’re in this cycle of obesity and diabetes. One in three teenage kids now has type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes. That’s just criminal.”

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Instead of counting calories and being in a caloric deficit as a way to lose weight and stay healthy, Hyman instead suggests focusing on how certain foods make you feel and how they impact your health.

“When you look at the way in which different types of calories affect your biology, you can just choose what you’re eating, and then you don’t have to worry about how much,” he told Fox News Digital.

In addition to the traditionally sweet options for breakfast, some cereal brands and breakfast staples have adopted new “protein-packed” menu items and products. (iStock)

“For example, if you eat a diet that doesn’t cause your insulin to spike — which is low in starch and sugar, higher in protein and fat — you won’t develop those swings in blood sugar, you won’t develop the spikes in insulin, you won’t deposit hungry fat … You will break that cycle.”

People are more likely to “self-regulate when they eat real food” instead of processed foods, which “bypasses the normal mechanisms of satiety, fullness and brain chemistry,” according to Hyman.

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“Ultraprocessed food and junk food or highly processed food is not food,” he said. “It doesn’t support the health and well-being of an organism. It doesn’t do that. It does the opposite.”

Angelica Stabile is a lifestyle reporter for Fox News Digital.

Health

Scientists make startling discovery when examining prostate cancer tissue

Published

1 day ago

March 1, 2026

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Scientists make startling discovery when examining prostate cancer tissue

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Small fragments of plastic were found in the tumors of most prostate cancer patients, according to a new study from NYU Langone Health.

In past studies, microplastics have been found in almost every human organ and in bodily fluids, but their impact on human health still isn’t fully understood.

The researchers analyzed tissue samples from 10 patients with prostate cancer who underwent surgery to remove the entire organ.

Using visuals of both benign samples and tumor samples, as well as specialized equipment, the scientists identified plastic particles in 90% of the tumor samples and 70% of benign tissue samples, according to the study press release.

In past studies, microplastics were found in almost every single human organ along with bodily fluids, even the placenta. (iStock)

The cancerous tissue contained on average more than double the amount of plastic as healthy prostate tissue samples, the study found. This equates to about 40 micrograms of plastic per gram of tissue compared to 16 micrograms.

Researchers avoided contaminating the samples with other plastics by substituting standard tools with those made of aluminum, cotton and other non-plastic material, the release noted.

NIGHTLY BATHROOM HABIT WAS MISSED SIGN OF COMMON MEN’S CANCER: ‘I DIDN’T KNOW’

The scientists say this is the first direct evidence linking microplastics to prostate cancer.

“By uncovering yet another potential health concern posed by plastic, our findings highlight the need for stricter regulatory measures to limit the public’s exposure to these substances, which are everywhere in the environment,” said senior study author Vittorio Albergamo, assistant professor in the department of pediatrics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, in the release.

The study findings were presented during the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in San Francisco on Feb. 26.

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“What is most striking is not that microplastics were detected, but that they were found embedded within tumor tissue itself,” Dr. David Sidransky, oncologist and medical advisor at SpotitEarly, a startup that offers an at-home breath-based test to detect early-stage cancer, told Fox News Digital.

“While complete avoidance is unrealistic, people can take practical steps to reduce exposure.”

“We already know microplastics are present in water, air, blood and even placental tissue. Their detection in prostate tumors suggests systemic distribution and long-term bioaccumulation,” added Maryland-based Sidransky, who was not involved in the study.

Study limitations

Albergamo cautioned that a larger sample is needed to confirm the findings. Additionally, Sidransky noted that the presence of microplastics alone does not prove they cause cancer.

“Tumors can act as ‘biologic sinks,’ meaning they may accumulate circulating particles simply because of altered vasculature and permeability,” he said.

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A key unanswered question, according to the doctor, is whether microplastics are biologically active in ways that “promote DNA damage, immune modulation or chronic inflammation within the prostate.”

About one in eight men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in their lifetime, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The most actionable step men can take is appropriate screening and early detection, according to doctors. (iStock)

For those concerned about microplastics, Sidransky offered some insights.

“I believe the appropriate response is curiosity, not panic, and a commitment to understand more,” he said.

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“While complete avoidance is unrealistic, people can take practical steps to reduce exposure, such as minimizing heating food in plastic containers, reducing bottled water consumption when possible, and favoring glass or stainless steel alternatives.”

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The most actionable step men can take, however, is getting appropriate screenings to help ensure early detection, according to the doctor. Screening discussions should be individualized based on age, family history and other risk factors.

Khloe Quill is a lifestyle production assistant with Fox News Digital. She and the lifestyle team cover a range of story topics including food and drink, travel, and health.