Dietary fatty acids and colorectal cancer risk in men: A report from the Shanghai Men's Health Study and a meta‐analysis

Abstract

Evidence from animal models suggests that dietary fatty acids have both anticancer and tumor-promoting effects. Whether dietary fatty acids are associated with colorectal cancer (CRC) in humans remains inconclusive. We investigated associations between dietary fatty acids and risk of CRC among 59 986 men who participated in the Shanghai Men's Health Study (SMHS), an ongoing population-based prospective cohort study. We identified 876 incident CRC cases in the SMHS during a mean follow-up of 9.8 years. Associations between dietary fatty acid intake and CRC risk were evaluated by Cox proportional hazard regression analyses. Consumption of saturated fatty acids (SFA), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) was not significantly associated with CRC risk. Multivariate hazard ratios (HRs) and respective 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for Quartile 4 vs Quartile 1 were 0.92 (0.74-1.14; P trend = 0.47) for SFA, 0.95 (0.79-1.16; P trend = 0.74) for MUFA and 1.18 (0.95-1.46; P trend = 0.21) for PUFA. No significant associations were found for total n-6 PUFA or total n-3 PUFA. Additionally, we performed a metaanalysis to summarize results from the present study and 28 reports from 26 additional cohorts, which supported the overall null association between dietary fatty acid intake and CRC risk among men. Docosahexanoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid were associated with 11% to 12% reduced risk, and linoleic acid a 19% increased risk, of CRC in the meta-analysis of combined sexes. In conclusion, this populationbased prospective study and meta-analysis of cohort studies found little evidence that dietary fatty acid intake was associated with risk of CRC in men.

Dietary Fats, Serum Cholesterol and Liver Cancer Risk: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Prospective Studies

“…The associations between dietary fats and health outcomes have been a long-standing research topic of interest [ 29 ]. Although not entirely consistent, some evidence suggests that specific types of fat may play different roles in carcinogenesis, and replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats may be beneficial to the prevention of some specific cancers including breast cancer [ 30 ], pancreatic cancer [ 31 ], prostate cancer [ 32 ], and lung cancer [ 33 ], but not colorectal cancer [ 34 , 35 ]. In general, our results provided new evidence for liver cancer by adding that higher intake of dietary SFA was associated with an increased risk of liver cancer.…”

Association of Dietary Intake and Biomarker of α-Linolenic Acid With Incident Colorectal Cancer: A Dose-Response Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies

“…During the follow-up duration of a 9.3-year median ranging from 1 to 28 years, 12,239 CRC cases were identified among 861,725 participants from the 15 prospective studies. Eleven cohorts of dietary intake of ALA were included, involving 10,583 cases and 854,818 participants in 9 prospective cohort studies ( 10 , 30 , 31 , 33 – 36 , 38 , 39 ) and 2 case-cohort studies ( 32 , 37 ), and dietary measurements were evaluated by food frequency questionnaires. For biomarkers of ALA, 5 prospective studies were included, involving 2,051 cases and 48,421 participants in 2 studies based on plasma ( 17 , 37 ), 2 on erythrocyte ( 18 , 40 ), and 1 on AT ( 16 ).…”

“…ALA levels in different biospecimens were quantified by gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) and the measurement unit was set as a percentage, except for one study (μmol/L) ( 17 ). Both male and female were reported in five articles ( 17 , 32 , 37 , 39 , 40 ), only male in two articles ( 10 , 30 ), only female in four articles ( 18 , 31 , 34 , 38 ), and 4 articles separately reported male and female ( 16 , 33 , 35 , 36 ). As for CRC locations, 13 articles reported total CRC ( 10 , 16 – 18 , 30 , 31 , 33 – 39 ), whereas 2 articles only separately reported colon cancer and rectal cancer ( 32 , 40 ).…”

Association Between Dietary Fatty Acid Pattern and Risk of Oral Cancer

“…Fatty acids, including saturated FA (SFA), n-3 and n-6 polyunsaturated FA (PUFA), and trans fatty acid (TFA), have been reported to be associated with the risk of varied types of cancer such as prostate cancer ( 13 , 14 ), pancreatic cancer ( 15 , 16 ), colorectal cancer ( 17 , 18 ), and lung cancer ( 19 ). However, reports about the association between FA and head and neck tumors, especially oral cancer, are rare.…”