Diet, micronutrients and prostate cancer: a review of the evidence

Prostate cancer is the most common life threatening cancer in males in Canada, however, relatively little is known about it etiology. Recent popular interest has focused on the role of diet. Information from a series of 13 analytic studies suggests that risk of the disease is positively related to intake of dietary fat. Furthermore, the relationship between fat consumption and prostate cancers of aggressive behavior appears to be stronger than that seen for all prostate cancers combined. Evidence from studies examining the relationship of beta-carotene and Vitamin A to prostate cancer is ambiguous with some investigations showing a direct association with risk and others showing no association. More recently, several studies have shown an inverse association between tomato products or lycopene consumption and prostate cancer. As well, indirect evidence suggests that consumption of soy based products (such as tofu) contains genistein and other isoflavones which may decrease risk of prostate cancer. Insufficient evidence is available on the relationship of prostate cancer to either lycopene or genistein to make dietary recommendations to prostate cancer patients or the general population. More research is urgently needed on the topic of dietary correlate of prostate cancer.