Milk consumption and cancer incidence: a Norwegian prospective study

Abstract

Summary Relationships between milk intake and cancer incidence were investigated after I 1I years of follow-up of 15,914 individuals. A diagnosis of cancer was made in a total of 1,422 individuals. No association was established with total cancer incidence, in analyses adjusted for sex, age and residential characteristics. However, a strong positive association with milk consumption was observed for cancers of the lymphatic organs (odds ratio 3.4 for > 2 glasses per day vs <1; 95% confidence interval 1. 4-8.2). An inverse association was found for cancer of the bladder. Kidney cancer and cancers of the female reproductive organs (except the uterine cervix) showed weak positive associations with milk intake.

Consumption of Dairy Products and Cancer Risks

“…11 The results of our study were in accordance with results from previous studies, except that milk consumption had an association with deaths from hematopoietic neoplasm excluding lymphoma.…”

“…One cohort study has demonstrated a positive association between milk consumption and death from lymphoma, 11 but not with death from leukemia or multiple myeloma. In contrast, the other study did not find any significant relationship between milk consumption and morbidity of lymphoma or leukemia.…”

“…[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] In particular, there are too few epidemiologic studies that have investigated the relationship between milk consumption and blood tumors, [12][13][14] even though a possible relationship between bovine leukemia virus (BLV) and leukemia increasingly has been documented, at both the molecular and cellular level. [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] Therefore, in this prospective cohort study, conducted across 12 communities in Japan, we investigated the relationships between the consumption of three different dairy products and death from various types of cancer.…”

The non-Hodgkin lymphomas: A review of the epidemiologic literature

“…In contrast, Chiu et al 403 found no association with the highest versus the lowest category of dairy intake (RR 5 1.04, 95% CI: 0.61-1.77). Associations with milk consumption have varied; some studies have reported positive associations, 402,405,406,409,413 whereas others have reported inverse or no associations. 370,373,403,405 Findings on fruit consumption have been inconsistent with some studies reporting an inverse association with risk of NHL, 368,385,403,405,407,414 but other studies have not reported such associations.…”

Intake of dairy products and risk of colorectal neoplasia

“…Milk is the dairy product that shows the most consistent relationship with CRC risk. Of the cohort studies to date that have investigated this relationship, most showed nonsignificant decreased risks of CRC with increasing milk intake (12,17,19,22,23,27,29,30,33,34,38) . Most studies have considered all types of milk together, but where these have been separated there are differences between low-fat v. whole milk.…”