Doctors found that the risk increases if the ring finger on the right hand is significantly longer than the index finger next to the thumb.

But men whose ring fingers are only slightly longer, or are about the same length, are much less likely to get the disease.

The findings open up the possibility of screening men with longer fingers at an early age for signs of cancer.

In the study, blood tests showed that men with longer ring fingers on their right hand had higher levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA).

This chemical is sometimes found in high levels in blood when cancer is present. The right hand was studied because the difference between the length of its ring finger and index finger is often greater than on the left, as it is more sensitive to hormonal changes in the womb.

The results are the latest in a long line of studies linking finger length to men’s health, most of which highlight the benefits of a long ring finger.

These include reduced risk of heart disease, a better chance of exam success and increased fertility.

Last year a team of experts from the Medical Research Council’s Epidemiology Resource Unit at Southampton University even found that young men with longer ring fingers made better sprinters.

Provenge – which is designed to be used in men with advanced disease – is the first of its kind to be accepted by the Food and Drug Administration.

Each dose has to be individually tailored and it is an expensive treatment at $93,000 per patient.

It will add to, rather than replace, existing treatments, said experts.

Doctors have been working on therapies that prompt the immune system to fight tumours for decades.

Potential success stories include an experimental vaccine for melanoma which is in the late stages of development.

This latest therapy is made by collecting special blood cells from each patient that help the immune system recognise cancer as a threat.

These are then mixed with a protein found on most prostate cancer cells and a substance which kick-starts the immune response.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, researchers who studied 35,000 men described “substantial” differences between what rich and poor received.

They said it was unclear what impact this could have on survival.

But previous studies have suggested a gap as high as 7% in survival rates between the least and most deprived.

If the cancer is localised and deemed low risk, most men are regularly monitored, but if it has started to develop doctors offer surgery or radiotherapy.

The Cambridge University team noted that the use of surgery more than doubled between 1995 and 2006. But their study showed it was more likely to be taken up by the most affluent – with 8.4% of this group receiving treatment to remove the prostate gland compared with 4% of the worst-off patients.

With radiotherapy, nearly 29% of the wealthiest received this form of treatment, compared with 21% of the poorest.

The pattern of discrepancies continued even when age, stage of the disease and hospital were taken into account.

Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine studied 2,000 men aged between 40 and 47.

They were able to link high levels of the male hormone testosterone in those who lose their hair earlier with a lower risk of tumours.

The findings are published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology.

Half of the men in this study had suffered prostate cancer.

Researchers compared the rate of tumours in those who said their hair had thinned by the age of 30 with those who did not suffer hair loss.

Men who had started to develop bald spots on the top of their heads as well as receding hairlines had a 29% to 45% reduction in the risk of prostate cancer.

Scientists who administered the virus to six volunteer patients found it killed off cancer cells while sparing normal tissue.

The respiratory, enteric, orphan virus, or “reovirus” is widespread but causes no significant illness in humans.

People exposed to it suffer, at most, mild flu-like respiratory symptoms or diarrhoea.

Previous research has shown that reovirus has “oncolytic” potential, meaning it preferentially targets cancer cells.

There is already some evidence of its effect against lymphoid, ovarian, breast, pancreatic and high grade glioma brain cancers.

The new Canadian study is the first to test the virus on prostate cancer.

Study leader Dr Don Morris, from the Tom Baker Cancer Center in Alberta, said: “Our results are a stepping stone into future prostate cancer clinical trials with another category of cancer therapeutics.”