Poultry consumption and prostate cancer risk: a meta-analysis

Area of Science:

• Nutrition and Cancer Epidemiology
• Oncology Research
• Public Health

Background:

• Dietary factors are investigated for their role in prostate cancer (PCa) incidence variation.
• The association between poultry consumption and PCa remains inconsistent, lacking quantitative assessment.
• Previous research highlights the need for a comprehensive meta-analysis to clarify this relationship.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a meta-analysis assessing the association between poultry consumption and prostate cancer (PCa) risk.
• To quantitatively evaluate the impact of poultry intake on PCa incidence based on existing literature.
• To provide a definitive conclusion on the poultry-PCa link using pooled data analysis.

Main Methods:

• A systematic literature search was performed on PubMed and Embase up to June 2015.
• Included studies examined the association between poultry consumption and PCa.
• Pooled risk ratios (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using fixed- or random-effect models.

Main Results:

• A total of 27 studies (12 cohort, 15 case-control) with 23,703 PCa cases were analyzed.
• The overall summary RR for PCa incidence related to highest versus lowest poultry intake was 1.03 (95% CI [0.95-1.11]).
• No statistically significant association was found in analyses of high-stage PCa, chicken-specific intake, different study designs, or geographic regions.

Conclusions:

• This meta-analysis indicates no significant association between poultry consumption and prostate cancer risk.
• The findings suggest that dietary poultry intake is unlikely to be a major factor influencing PCa development.
• Further well-designed epidemiological studies are recommended to validate these results and explore other dietary influences.