Intake of whole grains and incidence of gastric and oesophageal cancer in the HELGA cohort

• Background and objectives: Whole grains are a good sourceof dietary fibre, but beneficial effects might also stem fromother components of the grain. Very few studies exist on intakeof whole grains and incidence of stomach and oesophagealcancer, but studies on dietary fibre and these cancers suggesta protective effect. The objective of this work was to study theassociation between intake of whole grains and incidence ofoesophageal and gastric cancer. Methods: The Helga cohort has 120 000 participants fromthe Norwegian Women and Cancer study, The Northern Sweden Health and Disease study and the Danish Diet, Cancerand Health study, recruited in 1992-1999. After exclusions, 112cases of oesophageal cancer, 185 cases of gastric cancer and 113700 other cohort members were included in the analyses. Theyprovided dietary information in semi-quantitative FFQs at baseline,and also information about other risk factors. Cancer information was obtained by linkage to the respective cancerregistries. The association between whole grain intake and cancerwas analysed with Cox proportional hazards models. Results: The median whole-grain intake was 47.4 g/day(5th-95th percentile: 13.3-101.1) in the non-cases, 37.5 g/day(10.8-87.2) in oesophageal cancer cases, and 45.1 g/day (8.1-99.1) in gastric cancer cases. A decreased risk of oesophagealcancer was observed, HR=0.83 (CI 0.69-0.99) p=0.04 per 20g of whole grains. The HR for highest compared with lowesttertile of intake was 0.56 (0.32-0.97) p=0.03. The analyses wereadjusted for country, smoking status, age at baseline, sex, processedmeat, alcohol and vitamin C. No association was foundfor whole grains and gastric cancer.Conclusion: In this study, higher intake of whole grains wasassociated with lower risk of oesophageal cancer. Acknowledgements: This work was supported by NordForsk– Centre of excellence programme HELGA (070015).

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Endokrinologi och diabetes (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Endocrinology and Diabetes (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Näringslära (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Nutrition and Dietetics (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Whole grains

gastric cancer

oesophageal cancer

cohort

epidemiology

nutrition

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