Milk intake in teens tied to later prostate cancer

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older Icelandic men who remember chugging a lot of milk in their teens are three times as likely to be diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer as more-moderate milk drinkers, researchers have found.

That makes them wonder whether the years around puberty, during which the prostate matures, could be a time of heightened vulnerability for the gland.

"We believe that our data are indeed solid and provide important evidence for the role of adolescence as a 'sensitive period' for prostate cancer development," Johanna Torfadottir, a nutrition scientist and a graduate student at the University of Iceland, told Reuters Health by email.