The Association of Alcohol Consumption with the Risk of Prostate Cancer

Results of prior studies are mixed on whether there is an association of alcohol consumption with the risk of prostate cancer. Researchers examined data from 11,372 participants in the Older Finnish Twin Cohort. Participants were followed for the development of prostate cancer from 1981 to 2012, during which time 601 incident cases of prostate cancer and 110 deaths from prostate cancer occurred.

• Incidence of prostate cancer was associated with heavy average alcohol intake (>14 drinks in a week; hazard ratio [HR], 1.46), but an increased risk of prostate cancer-specific mortality was observed among abstainers (HR, 1.90).
• The lowest risk of prostate cancer was found in the referent group: people with “light” average consumption (≤3 drinks in a week) who did not have heavy episodic drinking (>4 drinks on one occasion at least once in a month).

Comments: This study suggests that there may be a J-shaped relation between alcohol consumption and prostate cancer risk. People with “light” consumption appeared to have the most favorable results for both incident prostate cancer and prostate cancer-specific mortality. Potential mechanisms for a decrease in risk of prostate cancer with “light” drinking are not known, but could possibly be related to anti-inflammatory or endocrine effects. The risk for participants reporting heavy and heavy episodic drinking was higher for both cancer incidence and mortality. For unexplained reasons, abstainers also tended to have higher risk of prostate cancer and mortality than those with “light” consumption; residual confounding from other lifestyle factors is always a possibility in observational studies and cannot be ruled out. The type of beverage consumed was not known, so it is unclear whether this may have had an effect.

R. Curtis Ellison, MD

Reference: Dickerman BA, Markt SC, Koskenvuo M, et al. Alcohol intake, drinking patterns, and prostate cancer risk and mortality: a 30-year prospective cohort study of Finnish twins. Cancer Causes Control. 2016;27:1049–1058.