Mediterranean diet adherence and prostate cancer risk

Countries following the traditional Mediterranean Diet, particularly Southern European countries, have lower prostate cancer incidence and mortality compared to other European regions. The beneficial effect has been attributed to a specific eating pattern.

The purpose of this review is to examine the evidence to date on the effects of adherence to a Mediterranean Diet on prostate cancer risk; and to identify which elements of the Mediterranean diet are likely to protect against prostate cancer.

The search for articles came from extensive research in the following databases: PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science. We used the search terms "Mediterranean diet", "adherence", "fruit and vegetable", "olive oil", "fish" "legume", "cereal" "alcohol" "milk", "dairy product","prostate cancer", and combinations, such as "Mediterranean diet and prostate cancer" or "Olive oil and prostate cancer".

There is strong evidence supporting associations between foods that are typical of a Mediterranean eating pattern and reduced prostate cancer risk. However, there are few studies that have assessed the effect of the Mediterranean diet on cancer prostate incidence. Recent data do not support associations to adherence to a Mediterranean Diet and risk of prostate cancer or disease progression. However, Mediterranean eating pattern after diagnosis of nonmetastatatic cancer was associated with lower overall mortality.

Further large-scale studies are required to clarify the effect of Mediterranean diet on prostate health, in order to establish the role of this diet in the prevention of prostate cancer.