Is Alcohol Intake Earlier in Life Associated With High-Grade Prostate Cancer?
Posted: Thursday, October 4, 2018
Emma Allott, PhD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health, and colleagues found a significant positive association between heavier alcohol exposure between the ages of 15 and 49 and diagnosis of high-grade prostate cancer at the time of biopsy. These findings, which indicate a potential risk factor this type of prostate cancer, were reported in a study published in Cancer Prevention Research.
From 2007 through 2018, the study recruited 650 men between the ages of 49 and 89 undergoing prostate biopsy at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center. A total of 325 were diagnosed with prostate cancer: about two-thirds had had low-grade disease and one-third had high-grade disease.
In a questionnaire, the patients were asked the average number of drinks they consumed per week during each decade of their lives, starting from between the ages of 15 and 19. Consumption of more than 7 drinks per week between the ages of 15 and 19 was significantly associated with a 3.21 times higher odds of high-grade prostate cancer diagnosis compared with nondrinkers. This trend continued for those between the ages of 20 and 29, where there were 3.14 times greater odds; for those between the ages of 30 and 39 had a 3.09 times higher odds, and those between the ages of 40 and 49 has increased odds by 3.64 times. Compared with men in the lowest tertile of cumulative lifetime alcohol consumption, those in the upper tertile had 3.2 times the odds of a high-grade prostate cancer diagnosis at biopsy.
No association was found between current drinking patterns and diagnosis of overall or high-grade prostate cancer.
