We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the role of alcohol consumption with the prognosis of prostate cancer (PCa). Published reports were gathered on 15 October 2022, from PUBMED/MEDLINE and EMBASE. We found 19 independent eligible studies on the association between consumption of alcoholic beverages and the risk of fatal PCa (n = 5), PCa mortality (n = 5) in healthy subjects, and PCa patients' survival (n = 7) or surrogates thereof (n = 2). We used random effects meta-analysis to obtain a summary risk estimate (SRE) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) for incidence of fatal PCa and PCa mortality. The meta-analysis revealed no association between alcohol consumption and fatal prostate cancer incidence risk in healthy subjects with an indication for publication bias, but omitting the study that mainly increased the between-study heterogeneity, the SRE becomes significant (SRE 1.33, 95%CI 1.12-1.58), and the heterogeneity disappeared (I2 = 0%) with no indication of publication bias. No association of alcohol consumption was found with mortality risk in PCa patients (SRE 0.97, 95%CI 0.92-1.03) and PCa mortality risk in healthy subjects (SRE 1.03, 95%CI 0.82-1.30). In conclusion, this study suggests that there is some evidence of an association between high alcohol consumption and an increased risk of incidence of fatal prostate cancer in healthy subjects. Given the inconsistencies this result warrants further confirmation.
Keywords: Meta-analysis; alcohol; mortality; prostate cancer; survival.