The inflammatory potential of diet in determining cancer risk; A prospective investigation of two dietary pattern scores

PLoS One. 2019 Apr 12;14(4):e0214551. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0214551. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Purpose: Inflammation-related mechanisms may contribute to the link between diet and cancer. We sought to investigate the inflammatory impact of diet on cancer risk using the Dietary inflammatory index (DII) and an adapted Mediterranean diet score (MDS).

Methods: This population-based, prospective cohort study used self-reported dietary data from the Västerbotten Intervention Programme, including 100,881 participants, of whom 35,393 had repeated measures. Associations between dietary patterns and cancer risk were evaluated using Cox proportional hazards regression. We also used restricted cubic splines to test for potential non-linear associations.

Results: A total of 9,250 incident cancer cases were diagnosed during a median follow-up of 15 years. The two dietary patterns were moderately correlated to each other and had similar associations with cancer risk, predominantly lung cancer in men (DII per tertile decrease: Hazard ratio (HR) 0.81 (0.66-0.99), MDS per tertile increase: HR 0.86 (0.72-1.03)), and gastric cancer in men (DII: 0.73 (0.53-0.99), MDS: 0.73 (0.56-0.96)). Associations were, in general, found to be linear. We found no longitudinal association between 10-year change in diet and cancer risk.

Conclusion: We confirm small, but consistent and statistically significant associations between a more anti-inflammatory or healthier diet and reduced risk of cancer, including a lower risk of lung and gastric cancer in men. The dietary indexes produced similar associations with respect to the risk of cancer.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Body Mass Index
  • Diet / adverse effects*
  • Diet, Healthy
  • Diet, Mediterranean*
  • Female
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Humans
  • Inflammation / complications*
  • Lung Neoplasms / diagnosis
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Neoplasms / diagnosis*
  • Neoplasms / prevention & control*
  • Nonlinear Dynamics
  • Proportional Hazards Models
  • Prospective Studies
  • Regression Analysis
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Risk Factors
  • Stomach Neoplasms / diagnosis
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Sweden

Grants and funding

SB was supported from The Cancer Research Fund in Northern Sweden (grant LP18-2175) and smaller funding from the Arctic Research Center (Arcum) at Umeå University (no grant-nr). Acknowledgement also to the Unit of Research, Education and Development, Östersunds Hospital, Region Jämtland Härjedalen for supporting SB in this project (no grant-nr). BVG was supported by the Swedish Cancer Society (grant CAN 2014/780 and CAN 2017/581) and from Region Västerbotten, Sweden (bas-ALF 2016-2019: VLL-761731, VLL-680921, VLL-582691, VLL-547711, RV-865561) and smaller annual grants (VLL-761731, VLL-680921, VLL-582691, RV-865561). The Northern Sweden Diet Database has been supported by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (Forte) and The Swedish Research Council (VR). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.