Date of Award

12-14-2015

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Department

Epidemiology and Biostatistics

First Advisor

Susan Steck

Abstract

Several foods and nutrients have been linked to prostate cancer risk, but the effect of overall diet on prostate cancer outcomes is not well understood. Previous research has primarily examined a posteriori dietary patterns in relation to prostate cancer; studies that have used a priori dietary patterns and their relationship with prostate cancer have been inconclusive. Furthermore, racial differences in prostate cancer incidence and aggressiveness are not well understood. Data from the case-only North Carolina-Louisiana Prostate Cancer Project (PCaP) was used to examine the association between overall dietary pattern, as measured by the Mediterranean Diet (MED) score and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) score, and prostate cancer aggressiveness in African-American (AA) and European-American (EA) men. Dietary patterns were assessed using a modified NCI Diet History Questionnaire for a final sample of 1,899 participants. Higher MED scores were found to be inversely associated with high aggressive prostate cancer overall (OR: 92; 95% CI: 0.84-0.99; p trend: 0.03); and results were similar for AA men and EA men. DASH scores were not significantly associated with prostate cancer aggressiveness. These results suggest that following a Mediterranean diet may decrease the risk of developing high aggressive prostate cancer.

Rights

© 2015, Lara Ryan Schneider

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