1. ¹Cancer Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
2. ²Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society, Copenhagen, Denmark
3. ³Department of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark
4. ⁴Division of Cancer Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Centre, Heidelberg, Germany
5. ⁵German Institute of Human Nutrition, Potsdam-Rehbücke, Germany
6. ⁶National Institute of Public Health and Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands
7. ⁷Department of Epidemiology, University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
8. ⁸Department of Urology, University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
9. ⁹Lombardy Cancer Registry Unit, National Cancer Institute, Milan, Italy
10. ¹⁰Molecular and Nutritional Epidemiology Unit, Scientific Institute of Tuscany, Florence, Italy
11. ¹¹Department of Biomedical Science, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
12. ¹²Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Imperial College, London, UK
13. ¹³Cancer Registry, Azienda Ospedaliera Civile M.P. Arezzo, Ragusa, Italy
14. ¹⁴Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Athens Medical School, Athens, Greece
15. ¹⁵Hellenic Health Foundation, Athens, Greece
16. ¹⁶Seccion de Vigilancia y Control Epidemiologico, Instituto de Salud Publica de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain
17. ¹⁷Epidemiology Unit, Basque Health Department in Gipuzkoa, San Sebastian, Spain
18. ¹⁸Epidemiology Department, Murcia Health Council, Murcia, Spain
19. ¹⁹Catalan Institute of Oncology, Barcelona, Spain
20. ²⁰Public Health and Health Planning Directorate, Asturias, Spain
21. ²¹Andalusian School of Public Health, Granada, Spain
22. ²²MRC Centre for Nutritional Epidemiology in Cancer Prevention and Survival, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Cambridge, UK
23. ²³Department of Gerontology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
24. ²⁴Department of Surgery, Malmö University Hospital, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden
25. ²⁵Department of Clinical Sciences, Malmö University Hospital, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden
26. ²⁶Division of Urology and Andrology, Department of Surgical and Perioperative Sciences, Umeå University Hospital, Umeå, Sweden
27. ²⁷Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Nutrition Research, Umeå University Hospital, Umeå, Sweden
28. ²⁸Nutrition and Hormones Group, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France

Correspondence: Dr NE Allen, Cancer Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7LF, UK. E-mail: naomi.allen@ceu.ox.ac.uk

Received 17 December 2007; Revised 4 February 2008; Accepted 4 February 2008; Published online 1 April 2008.

Abstract

We examined consumption of animal foods, protein and calcium in relation to risk of prostate cancer among 142 251 men in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. Associations were examined using Cox regression, stratified by recruitment centre and adjusted for height, weight, education, marital status and energy intake. After an average of 8.7 years of follow-up, there were 2727 incident cases of prostate cancer, of which 1131 were known to be localised and 541 advanced-stage disease. A high intake of dairy protein was associated with an increased risk, with a hazard ratio for the top versus the bottom fifth of intake of 1.22 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.07–1.41, P_trend=0.02). After calibration to allow for measurement error, we estimated that a 35-g day^-1 increase in consumption of dairy protein was associated with an increase in the risk of prostate cancer of 32% (95% CI: 1–72%, P_trend=0.04). Calcium from dairy products was also positively associated with risk, but not calcium from other foods. The results support the hypothesis that a high intake of protein or calcium from dairy products may increase the risk for prostate cancer.