Is it the result of early exposure or excessive cumulative exposure to alcohol? Still, the prostate does not seem to support these excesses. Excessive alcohol consumption may indeed increase the risk of high-grade prostate cancer, points out this from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Thus, vs. non-drinkers, men who consume at least 7 glasses of alcohol per week during adolescence, ie over the age period 15 to 19 years, present a risk multiplied by 3 of aggressive prostate cancer.
"The prostate is an organ that grows rapidly during puberty, potentially making it more vulnerable to carcinogenic exposure during adolescence," says lead author Dr. Emma Allott, professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina. While previous research on the subject had rather focused on the effect of alcohol consumption on the overall risk of prostate cancer, here the team looked precisely at how alcohol consumption during puberty and at midlife may be associated with prostate cancer risk in adulthood. Analysis of consumption data from 650 men who underwent a prostate biopsy between January 2007 and January 2018 found that:
- high alcohol consumption during adolescence is not associated with prostate cancer in general;
- however drinking at least 7 drinks per week in adolescence is associated with a 3.2-fold increased risk of high-grade prostate cancer -vs non-drinkers;
- similar associations are observed in people who consumed at least 7 alcoholic drinks per week between the ages of 20 and 29, 30 and 39 and 40 and 49, with risks of aggressive cancer increasing by 3.14, 3.09 and 3.64;
- on the other hand, current alcohol consumption (at the time of the study was not associated with the risk of high-grade prostate cancer;
- the association between cumulative lifetime alcohol consumption and the diagnosis of prostate cancer is also confirmed: vs participants in the lowest "tertile" in terms of lifetime alcohol consumption, Participants in the top tertile have a 3.2-fold increased risk of biopsy diagnosis of high-grade prostate cancer.
These results in favor of the association already suggested between alcohol consumption and prostate cancer are based either on an effect of early exposure to alcohol, or on a high cumulative consumption of alcohol at the time of diagnosis of prostate cancer.
However, most participants who drank heavily in adolescence typically continued to drink heavily throughout their lives.
