Abstract B97: Alcoholic beverages and prostate cancer in a prospective U.S. cohort study

Abstract

Abstract Higher alcohol consumption has been shown to be a risk factor for many cancers, yet despite a number of investigations, its relation to prostate cancer has not been established. We investigated the association between alcohol consumption and risk of prostate cancer in a large prospective study of dietary and environmental cancer risk factors among 294,707 men aged 50–71 years old upon enrollment in 1995–1996. Cox proportional hazards regression models with hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were adjusted for several characteristics including age, race, body mass index, physical activity, family history of prostate cancer, and PSA and DRE testing. There were 15,327 nonadvanced and 1,900 advanced incident prostate cancers identified through 2003 and 514 men died of prostate cancer through 2005. Risk of nonadvanced prostate cancer was 25% higher in men consuming 6 or more drinks per day (HR= 1.25, 95% CI: 1.13 – 1.37), 19% higher in men consuming between 3 and 6 drinks per day (HR= 1.19, 95% CI: 1.11 – 1.29), and 6% higher in men consuming up to 3 drinks per day compared to nondrinkers (HR= 1.06, 95% CI: 1.00 – 1.12). The lowest risk of nonadvanced prostate cancer was seen among nondrinkers. We observed no association between alcohol intake and advanced cancers and a possible association against fatal prostate cancer among a small number of heavy drinkers with 6+ drinks daily (HR= 0.45, 95% CI: 0.25 – 0.81). There were similar associations observed for all types of alcoholic beverages (i.e., wine, beer, liquor). In this large prospective study, we found that alcohol consumption modestly increased the risk of nonadvanced prostate cancers. Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2010;3(1 Suppl):B97.