Modifiable risk factors of prostate cancer: Insights from a hospital-based study

Prostate Cancer (PCa) is the second most common cancer and the fifth leading cause of cancer among men worldwide. The prevalence of Prostate cancer is much lower in India and it is likely that the incidence of prostate cancer will show an increase in the future. Modifiable habits like smoking, tobacco chewing, alcohol consumption and others have shown to be associated with Prostate Cancer. All these variables show conflicting results in various studies. Hence more research on the various determinants of Prostate Cancer for the Indian population will help in reducing the burden of this disease through scientific and empirical approach. The present study aims to study association of various modifiable risk factors with Prostate Cancer and Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia.

72 histologically proven prostate 'Cancer Cases' and 132 'BPH controls' were included for the study after obtaining their Informed Consent. This was confirmed by performing the PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen Test), DRE (Digital Rectal Examination) test and histopathological investigations. Odds ratio was obtained to study the association of the risk factors.

Our study revealed that Modifiable risk factors associated with decreased risk of Prostate cancer are Coffee intake and meat with an odds ratio of 0.355 (95% CI 0.175 to 0.72, p = 0.004) and 0.516 (95% CI 0.269 to 0.992, p = 0.047). No significant association was observed with other modifiable risk factors.

The present study concludes that an increased intake of coffee and meat may be linked to a reduced risk of developing prostate cancer.