Case-Control Study Of Prostate Cancer: Diet and Other Risk Factors

Hypothesis: There is an association between prostate cancer and high fat diet. Methods: The 100 pathologically confirmed cases of prostate cancer and 100 matched confirmed controls without any pathological evidence of prostate cancer were obtained from Urology Department of the V. A. Medical Center, East Orange, NJ. Exclusion criteria: patients with immunodeficiency diseases, persons with any other cancer and patient with life expectancy less than 6 months were excluded from the study. Matching criteria: One case matched with one control by age (+ & - 3 years) and race. Research Instrument: included standard dietary questionnaire, demographic, socio-economic, occupation and lifestyle questions. Statistical Analyses: included Chi-square tests and conditional logistic regression analyses to control the confounding variables. Results and conclusions: After adjusting for the confounding variables, there were statistically significant association between consumption of high fat diet, smoking and prostate cancer. This study did not confirm the association of prostate cancer with sexual activity, history of sexually transmitted diseases, vasectomy and prostate hypertrophy. There was not any significant protective effect of consumption of fruits, vegetables and vitamins for prostate cancer in this study. Our study is different from most of other studies in that our control group was pathologically confirmed control men without any pathological evidence of prostate cancer.