Dietary fat intake and prostate cancer risk: a case-control study in Spain

Objectives: Epidemiological evidence suggests that dietary factors can play a role in the etiology of prostate cancer. Results from several case-contr ol and cohort studies on nutrient intake and prostate cancer have been uncl ear. The authors examined the effect of lipid intake on the risk of prostat e cancer. Methods: In order to assess associations between lipid intake and prostate cancer risk, a case-control study was conducted between May 1994 and March 1998 in the Barcelona metropolitan area, Spain. Two hundred seventeen incid ent cases with histologically confirmed diagnosis of prostate cancer were m atched to 434 hospital and community controls by age and residence. Informa tion about food intake was gathered by a semiquantitative food-frequency qu estionnaire. Unconditional logistic regression was used for the analysis. Results and conclusions: Animal fat intake was associated with prostate can cer with an estimated OR for highest quartile of 2.0 (95% CI 1.2-3.2). Vita min C intake was inversely associated with prostate cancer (OR = 0.6; 95% C I 0.3-0.9). The prostate cancer risk increased in proportion to alpha-linol enic acid intake. In the analysis adjusting for energy and major covariable s the estimated OR for upper quartile of alpha-linolenic acid was 3.1 (95% CI 1.1-3.8). In conclusion, the association between fat intake and prostate cancer may be correlated with alpha-linolenic acid, although the specific mechanism has to be determined.