Animal products, calcium and protein and prostate cancer risk in the Netherlands Cohort Study

Prostate cancer risk in relation to consumption of animal products, and int ake of calcium and protein was investigated in the Netherlands Cohort Study . At baseline in 1986, 58 279 men aged 55-69 years completed a self-adminis tered 150-item food frequency questionnaire and a questionnaire on other ri sk factors for cancer. After 6.3 years of follow-up, 642 prostate cancer ca ses were available for analysis. In multivariate case-cohort analyses adjus ted for age, family history of prostate cancer and socioeconomic status, no associations were found for consumption of fresh meat, fish, cheese and eg gs. Positive trends in risk were found for consumption of cured meat and mi lk products (P-values 0.04 and 0.02 respectively). For calcium and protein intake, no associations were observed. The hypothesis that dietary factors might be more strongly related to advanced prostate tumours could not be co nfirmed in our study. We conclude that, in this study, animal products are not strongly related to prostate cancer risk.