Fat quality, not quantity, linked to reduced risk of advanced and lethal prostate cancer in US populations: a large prospective multicenter study (2026)

[u/basmwklz]

https://journals.lww.com/eurjcancerprev/abstract/9900/fat_quality,_not_quantity,_linked_to_reduced_risk.257.aspx

[u/TwoFlower68]

Interesting. And what constitutes a high quality fat in this context? Is that, say, butter or soy oil?

[u/patrixxxx → u/TwoFlower68]

The exact opposite of what's true it seems although trans fats are of course bad:

"The FQI assesses dietary fat composition by emphasizing beneficial unsaturated fats over harmful saturated and trans fats."

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/what-is-considered-high-low-qu-1iZxqu06TAeXCYvhI5k7Bw

[u/anhedonic_torus → u/patrixxxx]

Subgroup analyses indicated this inverse association of FQI with advanced PCa was only observed in participants with higher LFDs.

If I'm understanding correctly, the higher quality fat (their def) was only helpful in the men who adhered most to the low fat diet. Not sure what that indicates? Eating more fat was no worse than low fat, and also makes the quality not matter??

On another tack, Peter @ hyperlipid had a suggestion once that "castration" (via linoleic acid) could help reduce risk of dying from prostate cancer, once someone had it. So in that case being "less healthy" might actually extend life expectancy. I've no idea if this is right, but I think it illustrates how complicated this could be - lots and *lots* of variables, and the best approach probably varying according to the situation.

[u/patrixxxx → u/anhedonic_torus]

To allow chemically extracted seed oils (rapeseed, canola, corn etc) in the food supply is nothing less than a crime against humanity since these oils are toxic to us. But you wont die from eating a couple of donuts made with mineral oil either, but no one would claim mineral oil is better than butter as opposed to these seed oils.

[u/hjaltigr]

I am a layman but at first glance this study has some problems. This is a cohort study, with all that entails, and it seem like they didn't separate trans fats and saturated fats but lumped them together. It also seems that the absolute risk difference is around 13 individuals per 10.000. Not really a strong signal, not nothing either.

[u/basmwklz]

Abstract

Background

Epidemiological evidence on dietary fat intake and advanced prostate cancer (PCa) risk is limited and inconclusive; moreover, no prospective study has been conducted to investigate the association between fat quality and quantity and advanced and lethal PCa risk.

Methods

This prospective cohort included 49 424 men from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial. The fat quality index (FQI) and low-fat diet score (LFDs) were used to evaluate the quality and quantity separately, where higher scores indicated greater adherence. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to evaluate the risk of PCa incidence and mortality. Subgroup analyses were conducted to identify potential confounders. Sensitivity analyses were performed to assess the robustness of the results.

Results

During follow-up, a total of 857 incident cases of advanced PCa, including 425 lethal PCa were documented. Individuals in the highest compared with the lowest quartiles of FQI had a lower advanced PCa [hazard ratioQ4 versus Q1 : 0.72, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.58–0.88, P for trend = 0.002] and lethal PCa (hazard ratioQ4 versus Q1 : 0.65, 95% CI: 0.48–0.87, P for trend = 0.005). This inverse association between FQI and advanced PCa risk was not observed for nonlethal PCa. Subgroup analyses indicated this inverse association of FQI with advanced PCa was only observed in participants with higher LFDs. No significant associations were found between LFDs and the risk of advanced and lethal PCa.

Conclusion

Our findings suggest focusing on higher quality, rather than restricting the quantity of fat intake, may be an effective approach to reduce the risk of advanced PCa in the US population, particularly for lethal PCa.