Objective: Egg consumption has been suggested to increase the risk of colorectal and some other cancers. The present study summarized and quantified the current evidence relating dietary intake of eggs and prostate cancer.

Materials and methods: Literature searches were conducted to identify peer-reviewed manuscripts published up to July 2012. Twenty manuscripts from nine cohort studies and 11 case-control studies were identified. Summary risk estimates with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated for case-control and cohort studies separately.

Results: Neither the case-control not the cohort studies showed any association of prostate cancer incidence with egg consumption (case-control studies: odds ratio 1.09, 95% CI 0.86-1.31; cohort studies: relative risk 0.97, 95% CI 0.97-1.07). The results were consistent in subgroup analysis. Furthermore, no association was observed between egg consumption and prostate cancer-specific mortality.

Conclusions: Our analyses provided no evidence of a significant influence of egg consumption on prostate cancer incidence and mortality. However, more studies, particularly large prospective studies, are needed.