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Dietary fat intake and risk of prostate cancer in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition1

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Abstract

Background

Findings from early observational studies have suggested that the intake of dietary fat might be a contributing factor in the etiology of prostate cancer. However, the results from more recent prospective studies do not support this hypothesis, and the possible association between different food sources of fat and prostate cancer risk also remains unclear.

Objective

The objectives were to assess whether intakes of dietary fat, subtypes of fat, and fat from animal products were associated with prostate cancer risk.

Design

This was a multicenter prospective study of 142 520 men in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). Dietary fat intake was estimated with the use of country-specific validated food questionnaires. The association between dietary fat and risk of prostate cancer was assessed by using Cox regression, stratified by recruitment center and adjusted for height, weight, smoking, education, marital status, and energy intake.

Results

After a median follow-up time of 8.7 y, prostate cancer was diagnosed in 2727 men. There was no significant association between dietary fat (total, saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fat and the ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fat) and risk of prostate cancer. The hazard ratio for prostate cancer for the highest versus the lowest quintile of total fat intake was 0.96 (95% CI: 0.84, 1.09; P for trend = 0.155). There were no significant associations between prostate cancer risk and fat from red meat, dairy products, and fish.

Conclusion

The results from this large multicenter study suggest that there is no association between dietary fat and prostate cancer risk.

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Supported by Cancer Research UK; European Commission: Public Health and Consumer Protection Directorate 1993–2004; Research Directorate-General 2005; German Cancer Aid; German Cancer Research Center; German Federal Ministry of Education and Research; Danish Cancer Society; Health Research Fund (FIS) of the Spanish Ministry of Health; the CIBER Epidemiologiéa y Salud Puéblica, Spain; the participating regional governments and institutions of Spain; Medical Research Council, United Kingdom; the Stroke Association, United Kingdom; British Heart Foundation; Department of Health, United Kingdom; Food Standards Agency, United Kingdom; the Wellcome Trust, United Kingdom; Greek Ministry of Health; Greek Ministry of Education; Italian Association for Research on Cancer; Italian National Research Council; Dutch Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sports; Dutch Ministry of Health; Dutch Prevention Funds; LK Research Funds; Dutch Zorg Onderzoek Nederland; World Cancer Research Fund; Swedish Cancer Society; Swedish Scientific Council; Regional Government of Skane, Sweden. This research was conducted during tenure of a Girdlers' New Zealand Health Research Council Fellowship.

1

From the Cancer Research UK Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom (FLC, TJK, PNA, and RCT); the Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aalborg Hospital, Aarhus University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark (KO and MUJ); the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society, Copenhagen, Denmark (NFJ and AT); the German Cancer Research Center, Division of Cancer Epidemiology, Unit of Nutritional Epidemiology, Heidelberg, Germany (JL and SR); the German Institute of Human Nutrition, Potsdam-Rehbücke, Germany (HB and TP); the Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Athens Medical School, Athens, Greece (AT and PL); the Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA and the Hellenic Health Foundation, Athens, Greece (DT); Epidemiologia e la Prevenzione Oncologica (CPO)-Piemonte, Torino, Italy (CS); the Molecular and Nutritional Epidemiology Unit CSPO-Scientific Institute of Tuscany, Florence, Italy (DP); the Cancer Registry, Azienda Ospedaliera “Civile MP Arezzo”, Ragusa, Italy (RT); the Department of Preventive and Predictive Medicine, Nutritional Epidemiology Unit, National Cancer Institute, Milan, Italy (VK); the Center for Nutrition and Health, National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, Netherlands (HBB-d-M); the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands (LAK); the Epidemiology Department, Murcia Health Council (M-DC) and the Public Health Institute of Navarra (EA and M-JS) Pamplona, CIBER en Epidemiología y Salud Pública, Spain; the Andalusian School of Public Health, Granada, Spain (M-JS); the Public Health Department of Gipuzkoa, Basque Government, Avda de Navarra, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain (NL); the Department of Epidemiology, Catalan Institute of Oncology, Barcelona, Spain (CAG); the Public Health and Health Planning Directorate, Asturias, Spain (JRQ); the Department of Surgery, Malmö University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden (JM); the Department of Clinical Sciences in Malmö/Nutrition Epidemiology, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden (EW); the Department of Surgical and Perioperative Sciences, Urology and Andrology (PS) and the Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Nutritional Research (GH), Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden; the Department of Gerontology (K-TK) and the Medical Research Council Dunn Human Nutrition Unit and Medical Research Council Center for Nutritional Epidemiology in Cancer Prevention and Survival, Department of Public Health and Primary Care (SB), University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom; the Nutrition and Hormones Group, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France (PF, NS, and MJ); and the Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom (ER)