Prostate Cancer, Dietary Fat Linked
Study Finds That Limiting Intake of Red Meat Reduces Disease Risk
Eating a lot of fat, especially from red meat, increases a man’s risk of life-threatening prostate cancer, researchers say.
Animal fat in the diet seems to promote the growth of small, latent prostate tumors, making them more likely to turn lethal, researchers at Harvard’s School of Public Health found.
Their study, published in today’s edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, presents the strongest evidence yet that advanced prostate cancer – like breast and colon cancer – may be linked to a high-fat diet, said Kenneth J. Pienta, a cancer researcher at Wayne State University in Detroit. He reviewed the study for an editorial in the journal.
“What you can infer from this study is that cutting back on dietary fat may help prevent prostate cancer,” Pienta said. “It’s a safe recommendation, because if you cut down on fat you live longer, you get less heart disease and less chance of other diseases.”
The lead researcher, Edward Giovannucci of Harvard University School of Medicine, said the findings mirror the reasons behind existing diet guidelines, “which are not followed by great numbers of people.”
The American Cancer Society recommends reducing fat to 30 percent or less of total calories consumed; it says the average U.S. diet is about 40 percent fat.
Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death among U.S. men, behind lung cancer. In 1991, an estimated 122,000 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, and 32,000 died of it.
The study, which surveyed 47,855 American men from 1986 to 1990, found that those who ate red meat as a main dish five or more times per week were 2.6 times as likely to suffer advanced prostate cancer as men who ate red meat only once a week or less.
“The risk went down as the intake decreased,” Giovannucci said. “Even eating red meat three times a week rather than five times a week, you did get some benefit.”
Vegetable fats and fat from fish and dairy products – except butter – don’t increase the risk of advanced prostate cancer, researchers found.
The study didn’t find a link between fat and the more common early stages of prostate cancer, which often go undetected.
Autopsies around the world have found latent prostate cancer in from 15 percent to 30 percent of men who died after age 50; the rate is similar from country to country. But countries where high-fat diets are prevalent, such as the United States, have significantly more cases of advanced prostate cancer.
The Washington Post