Adapted from an article in Science Daily, January 10, 2018
In a new study published in the Journal of Urology, researchers determined that men who followed a Mediterranean diet—rich in fish, boiled potatoes, whole fruits, vegetables, legumes, and olive oil, and low consumption of juices—had lower risk of aggressive prostate cancer (PC) than those who followed other dietary patterns, like Prudent or Western diets.
Although PC is the most common type of cancer in men and can have a high mortality rate, evidence linking PC to specific environmental, occupational, or dietary exposures has been limited. Recent studies have investigated whether certain dietary patterns impact cancer risks, but the results have been inconsistent.
The study’s authors explored the relationship between the risk of having PC and dietary patterns as part of the MCC-Spain study, a Spanish case-control study that involved 733 patients with histologically confirmed PC and 1,229 healthy men with a mean age of 66 years from seven Spanish regions.
Adherence to the three dietary patterns of Western, Prudent, and Mediterranean, which characterize the dietary habits of the Spanish population, was evaluated.
- The Western pattern includes consumption of large amounts of fatty dairy products, refined grains, processed meat, caloric beverages, sweets, fast food, and sauces.
- The Prudent pattern involves consumption of low-fat dairy products, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and juices.
- The Mediterranean pattern consists of high consumption of fish, boiled potatoes, fruits, vegetables, legumes, and olive oil, and low consumption of juices.
The diets were graded according to the degree of adherence to each pattern and assigned to four quartiles from lower to higher adherence within each pattern.
Only a high adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern appeared to be associated with a lower risk of aggressive PC. Prudent and Mediterranean dietary patterns showed different effects in low- and high-grade tumors.
Results indicated that for more aggressive and more extensive tumors, only high adherence to the Mediterranean diet showed a statistically significant protective effect. All other dietary patterns and tumor characteristics showed little or no correlation and did not achieve statistical significance.
Co-author Adela Castelló, PhD, Cancer and Environmental Epidemiology Unit, National Center for Epidemiology, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Madrid), commented, “If other researchers confirm these results, the promotion of the Mediterranean dietary pattern might be an efficient way of reducing the risk of developing advanced PC, in addition to lowering the risk of other prevalent health problems in men such as cardiovascular disease. Dietary recommendations should take into account whole patterns instead of focusing on individual foods.”
Reference: Adela Castelló, Elena Boldo, Pilar Amiano, Gemma Castaño-Vinyals, Nuria Aragonés, Inés Gómez- Acebo, Rosana Peiró, Jose Juan Jimenez-Moleón, Juan Alguacil, Adonina Tardón, Lluís Cecchini, Virginia Lope, Trinidad Dierssen-Sotos, Lourdes Mengual, Manolis Kogevinas, Marina Pollán, Beatriz Pérez-Gómez. Mediterranean Dietary Pattern Is Associated with Low Risk of Aggressive Prostate Cancer: MCC-Spain Study.
J Urol 2018;199(2):430. doi: 10.1016/j.juro.2017.08.087