Dairy Products and Prostate Cancer Risk

Increased calcium intake from dairy products has been suggested as a risk factor for prostate cancer. We propose that the high dietary phosphate of dairy products may more readily explain this risk rather than the increased calcium. Several epidemiologic correlations have indicated an increased risk of prostate cancer with long-term, high intake of dairy products in male U.S. physicians (1 Giovannucci, E. 1998. Dietary influences of 1,25(OH)2 vitamin D in relation to prostate cancer: a hypothesis. Cancer Causes Control, 9: 567–582. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2 Corder, E H, Guess, H A, Hulka, B S, Friedman, G DSadler, M. 1993. Vitamin D and prostate cancer: a prediagnostic study with stored sera. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev, 2: 467–472. [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 3 Giovannucci, E, Rimm, E B, Wolk, A, Ascherio, AStampfer, M J. 1998. Calcium and fructose intake in relation to risk of prostate cancer. Cancer Res, 58: 442–447. [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and males in Sweden (4 Chan, J M, Giovannucci, E, Andersson, S O, Yuen, JAdami, H O. 1998. Dairy products, calcium, phosphorous, vitamin D, and risk of prostate cancer (Sweden). Cancer Causes Control, 9: 559–566. [Crossref], [PubMed] , [Google Scholar]). This relation has been mechanistically associated with the higher dietary intake of calcium in dairy products (1 Giovannucci, E. 1998. Dietary influences of 1,25(OH)2 vitamin D in relation to prostate cancer: a hypothesis. Cancer Causes Control, 9: 567–582. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2 Corder, E H, Guess, H A, Hulka, B S, Friedman, G DSadler, M. 1993. Vitamin D and prostate cancer: a prediagnostic study with stored sera. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev, 2: 467–472. [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 3 Giovannucci, E, Rimm, E B, Wolk, A, Ascherio, AStampfer, M J. 1998. Calcium and fructose intake in relation to risk of prostate cancer. Cancer Res, 58: 442–447. [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 4 Chan, J M, Giovannucci, E, Andersson, S O, Yuen, JAdami, H O. 1998. Dairy products, calcium, phosphorous, vitamin D, and risk of prostate cancer (Sweden). Cancer Causes Control, 9: 559–566. [Crossref], [PubMed] , [Google Scholar]). We propose, however, that the high dietary phosphate of dairy products affects much larger fluctuation in serum phosphate and may be a more likely source of prostate cancer risk from high dietary intake of dairy products.