Adolescent dietary patterns in relation to later prostate cancer risk and mortality in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study

Background: Although adolescent diet has been proposed to contribute to prostate cancer (PCa) development, no studies have investigated the relation between adolescent dietary patterns and PCa risk or mortality. Methods: Using data from 164,079 men in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study, we performed factor analysis to identify dietary patterns at ages 12–13 years and then used Cox proportional hazards regression to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of total (n = 17,861), non-advanced (n = 15,499), advanced (n = 2362), and fatal PCa (n = 832). Results: Although not entirely consistent across analyses, a higher adolescent plant-based pattern (characterised by vegetables, fruits, and dark bread) score was associated with slightly reduced risks of total (fully adjusted HR_Q5vs.Q1 = 0.93, 95% CI: 0.89–0.98, p trend=0.003) and non-advanced PCa (HR = 0.91, 95% CI: 0.87–0.96, p trend<0.001), whereas no associations were observed for advanced or fatal PCa, or for Western modern (characterised by sweets, processed meat, beef, cheese, and pizza) or Western traditional (characterised gravy, eggs, potatoes and white bread) patterns. Conclusion: We found evidence to support a modest, protective role for a plant-based dietary pattern during adolescence on PCa risk. If confirmed in future studies, our findings may help to inform the development of new, primary prevention strategies for PCa.