ARS | Publication request: Soy Consumption of Prostate Cancer Risk in Men: A Meta-Analysis

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: October 31, 2008
Publication Date: November 6, 2008
Citation: Yan, L., Spitznagel, E.L. 2008. Soy Consumption of Prostate Cancer Risk in Men: A Meta-Analysis. American Institute for Cancer Research Conference. Abstract will not be published.

Technical Abstract: Soy is a major plant source of dietary protein to humans. Epidemiologic studies show that consumption of soy foods may be related to a reduction in cancer risk in humans. The purpose of the present study was to conduct a meta-analysis on the association between soy consumption and prostate cancer risk in men. We systematically reviewed studies obtained through a thorough MEDLINE literature search with the following inclusion criteria: a study must have soy assessed as a food; and it must have provided a risk estimate and its 95% confidence interval; and for studies with multiple publications or studies with same results published in different journals, we chose the most recent one for analysis. We identified 15 publications (six cohort and nine case-control studies) on soy intake and prostate cancer risk. We conducted this analysis using a random-effects model in which studies with smaller standard error of estimate are given greater weight in the summary measure. Our analysis of these studies yielded an overall risk estimate of 0.74 (95% confidence interval: 0.63, 0.89; P = 0.001). When separately analyzed, studies on non-fermented soy foods yielded an overall risk estimate of 0.70 (0.56, 0.88; P = 0.002) and those on fermented ones yielded 1.02 (0.73, 1.42; P = 0.922). Results of this analysis suggest that consumption of soy foods is related to a reduction in prostate cancer risk in men.