The association between fatty acids intake and prostate cancer, and the potential for effect modification from organophosphate pesticides among the agricultural health study population

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among men in the US. Although genes play an important role in the development of this disease, there are some modifiable factors that may decrease or increase risk of this disease. The Agricultural Health Study participants have been shown to have more reports of prostate cancer due to more contact with some pesticides (terbufos and fonofos). Dietary habits of the US population have changed since the industrial era such that they are reported with an imbalance between healthy and unhealthy fats and oils (e.g., higher intake of animal fats and lower intake of sea foods).

In this dissertation, I was interested to find if decreasing the ratio of unhealthy to healthy dietary components, could reduce risk of prostate cancer in the Agricultural Health Study population. I was also interested to find out if pesticides (terbufos and fonofos) could change the protective effect of these dietary components.

I found that a balanced ratio of beneficial to detrimental fat components could be protective for prostate cancer in younger ages. However, I did not find any evidence to suggest pesticides impacted the effect of dietary fat on prostate cancer.

In conclusion, maintaining a balance between consumption of healthy resources (sea foods, canola oil, flaxseed oil, chia seed) and unhealthy resources (animal foods, grapeseed oil, pumpkin seeds oil, and sunflower oil) particularly in younger ages may decrease risk of prostate cancer among the Agricultural Health Study population.