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Increased antioxidant intake may lower risk for pancreatic cancer
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Increased dietary intake of vitamins C, E and selenium could help decrease the risk of developing pancreatic cancer by two-thirds, according to results of a prospective cohort study.
Risk factors of pancreatic cancer include family history, smoking and type 2 diabetes. Diet also may be involved in the etiology of pancreatic cancer, according to researchers.
Minimal evidence suggests antioxidants can reduce oxidative DNA damage and stimulate immune function, according to background information of the study.
Paul J.R. Banim, of the department of medicine, health policy and practice at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, United Kingdom, and colleagues evaluated 23,658 participants aged 40 to 74 years who participated in the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer (EPIC)-Norfolk Study between 1993 and 1997.
Participants from Norfolk, United Kingdom, completed 7-day food diaries, recording their entire dietary consumption, including food types, portion sizes, brands, cooking methods and recipes in eight separate meal times each day.
Investigators input data into a specially designed computer program called the Data Into Nutrients for Epidemiological Research (DINER). Banim and colleagues matched each food item to one of the 11,000 food items and 55,000 portion sizes in DINER.
Within 10 years, 49 participants (55% male) developed pancreatic cancer, according to study results. After 17 years of follow-up, 86 participants developed pancreatic cancer.
The median survival of patients after diagnosis was 5 months.
Investigators compared the patients with pancreatic cancer to 3,970 healthy participants in a control group of the EPIC-Norfolk Study.
Researchers detected inverse associations between the lowest quartile and a summation of the three higher ones for selenium (HR=0.49; 95% CI, 0.26-0.93) and vitamin E (HR=0.57; 95% CI, 0.29-1.09), but not vitamin C or zinc.
At 10 years of follow-up, participants consuming the three highest quarters of vitamins C, E and selenium decreased their risk for pancreatic cancer (HR=0.33; 95% CI, 0.13-0.84).
Those in the top 25% of consumption for selenium, vitamin E and vitamin C were 67% less likely to develop pancreatic cancer than those in the lower 25%, study results showed.
Weekly intake in the top 25% of selenium roughly halved their risk of developing pancreatic cancer compared with those whose intake was in the bottom 25%.
The study reveals the importance of accurate measurement of dietary antioxidants for studies investigating the etiology of pancreatic cancer, Banim and researchers said.
“If a causal association is confirmed by reporting consistent findings from other epidemiological studies, then population-based dietary recommendations may help prevent pancreatic cancer,” Banim and colleagues wrote.
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