Overall, drinking wine does not impact prostate cancer risk

(HealthDay)—Moderate wine consumption does not seem to impact the risk of prostate cancer, according to a review published online April 17 in Clinical Epidemiology.

Mihai Dorin Vartolomei, Ph.D., M.D., from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Tirgu Mures in Romania, and colleagues conducted a systematic literature review to identify studies that assessed the risk of prostate cancer due to red, white, or any wine.

The researchers identified 17 studies (611,169 subjects) for inclusion. For moderate wine consumption, the pooled risk ratio for the risk of prostate cancer was 0.98 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.92 to 1.05; P = 0.57). In multivariable analysis, moderate white wine consumption increased the risk of prostate cancer (pooled risk ratio, 1.26; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.10 to 1.43; P = 0.001), while moderate red wine consumption had a protective effect (pooled risk ratio, 0.88; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.78 to 0.999; P = 0.047).

"In this meta-analysis, moderate wine consumption did not impact the risk of prostate cancer. Interestingly, regarding the type of wine, moderate consumption of white wine increased the risk of prostate cancer, whereas moderate consumption of red wine had a protective effect," the authors write. "Further analyses are needed to assess the differential molecular effect of white and red wine conferring their impact on prostate cancer risk."