PD03-04: Systematic review of the impact of a plant-based diet on prostate cancer incidence and outcomes

Natasha Gupta*, Jacob Taylor, James Borin, New York, NY, Kenneth Jacobsohn, Milwaukee, WI, Stacey Kenfield, San Francisco, CA, Scott Eggener, Chicago, IL, Hiten Patel, Maywood, IL, Carrie Price, Towson, MD, Meena Davuluri, Nataliya Byrne, New York, NY, Trinity Bivalacqua, Philadelphia, PA, Stacy Loeb, New York, NY

Introduction: Plant-based diets are increasingly popular and have many well-established benefits for health and environmental sustainability. Our objective was to perform a systematic review of plant-based diets and prostate cancer.

Methods: We performed a systematic search using PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, Scopus, the Web of Science, AMED, Nursing and Allied Health, and CINAHL Plus in June 2020. A systematic citation search was also performed. Studies were included if they reported primary data on full plant-based dietary patterns (i.e., vegan, vegetarian, plant-based) and incidence among at-risk men for prostate cancer, or oncologic, general health/nutrition, or quality of life (QOL) outcomes among patients with prostate cancer or caregivers of patients with prostate cancer.

Results: A total of 31 publications were eligible for the qualitative synthesis, including 16 interventional (including 7 from the Prostate Cancer Lifestyle Trial) and 15 observational (including the EPIC-Oxford UK and Seventh Day Adventist cohorts) (Table 1). Interventional studies primarily focused on lifestyle modification including plant-based diets for men on active surveillance for localized prostate cancer or with biochemical recurrence after treatment, showing improvements in short-term oncologic outcomes alongside improvements in general health and nutritional parameters. Epidemiologic studies primarily focused on risk of prostate cancer, showing either protective or null associations for plant-based dietary patterns. Studies of the vegan diet consistently showed favorable associations with risk and/or outcomes. Gaps in the current literature include impact for long-term disease-specific outcomes.

Conclusions: Interventional studies showed generally favorable results of lifestyle modifications incorporating a plant-based diet with prostate cancer outcomes as well as improvements in nutrition and general health. Epidemiologic studies have shown either a lower risk of total prostate cancer or no significant difference. These results are encouraging in light of the many benefits of plant-based diets for overall health, as well as environmental sustainability and animal welfare.

Source of Funding: SAK is supported by the Helen Diller Family Chair in Population Science for Urologic Cancer, SL is supported by the Prostate Cancer Foundation, the New York State Department of Health Prostate Cancer Pilot Research Grant, and a generous donation from Patricia and Michael Berns. NG is supported by grant T32HS026120 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Agency.