Vitamin B2 intake and colorectal cancer risk; results from the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow‐Up Study cohort

Abstract

Vitamin B2 serves as a cofactor to enhance one-carbon metabolism, maintain mucous membranes, and has been implicated in lowering colorectal cancer (CRC) risk. However, few prospective studies have examined the association between vitamin B2 intake and CRC. In this study, we estimated the associations between vitamin B2 intake and CRC risk using the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS) cohorts. Vitamin B2 intake was measured by a validated food frequency questionnaire every 4 years. Among 100,033 women in the NHS and 44,007 men in the HPFS we documented a total of 3,037 incident CRC cases (2,093 women and 944 men) during 24–26 years of follow-up until 2010. Intakes of total (from food and supplements), dietary (from food only), and supplemental vitamin B2 were inversely related to CRC risk in age-adjusted analysis in NHS. However, the association was attenuated and no longer statistically significant in multivariate analysis (P-trend ≥0.08). The pooled multivariate relative risks (95% confidence interval) comparing individuals in the extreme quintiles of intakes were 0.93 (0.81–1.06) for total vitamin B2, 0.89 (0.61–1.28) for dietary vitamin B2 and 0.94 (0.81–1.08) for supplemental vitamin B2. These associations of total vitamin B2 intake were similar for risk of CRC with varying lag-time periods (0–4, 4–8, 8–12, or 12–16 years), for risk of CRC subtypes by tumor location, and across strata of intake of folate or alcohol. Our prospective data do not support a beneficial role of vitamin B2 intake in lowering incidence of CRC.

Dietary B vitamin and methionine intakes and risk for colorectal cancer: a case–control study in China

“…Stratified analysis by alcohol consumption suggested that there was no indication of effect modification between B vitamins and methionine and colorectal cancer by alcohol consumption. Consistent with our results, some previous studies found no significant interaction in the associations between folate (16,52) , vitamin B 2 (46,47) , vitamin B 6 (56,57) , vitamin B 12 (47,56) and methionine (47,52) and colorectal cancer risk modified by alcohol consumption. However, the National Institutes of Health-American Association of Retired Persons Diet and Health Study showed total folate intake-associated colorectal cancer risk reductions among men and women drinkers (both >15 and ≤15 g/d) but not non-drinkers (13) .…”

“…The present study showed that intakes of folate, vitamin B 2 and vitamin B 6 were inversely associated with colorectal cancer both in men and women, whereas vitamin B 12 and methionine intakes were found to be related to decreased risk of colorectal cancer only among women. These sex differences have been reported in previous studies; however, the results were inconclusive (13,21,28,46,52) . Consistent with our results, one cohort study conducted in the Netherlands found that methionine was associated with a decreased risk of rectal cancer among women (52) , but a 2013 meta-analysis of eight prospective studies indicated that a significant inverse association was observed between dietary methionine intake and colorectal cancer risk only in men but not in women (28) .…”

“…The inverse associations between intakes of vitamin B 2 , vitamin B 6 and vitamin B 12 and colorectal cancer risk observed in the present study were consistent with some previous studies. Two (12,17) of the eight (12,16,17,19,20,(46)(47)(48) observational studies reported an inverse association of vitamin B 2 intake with colorectal cancer risk. Results from one cohort study (17) and one case-control study (48) suggested an inverse association between dietary intake of vitamin B 6 and colorectal cancer risk, while four cohort studies found no significant association between vitamin B 6 intake and colorectal cancer risk (16,18,19,47) .…”

Dietary Reference Values for riboflavin

“…Regarding the risk of colorectal cancer , after adjustments for potential confounders, no association with riboflavin intake was found in most cohorts (de Vogel et al., ; Kabat et al., ; Shrubsole et al., ; Key et al., ; Yoon et al., ). In one cohort (Zschabitz et al., ) included in the systematic review below, no association was shown with riboflavin intake from food or from supplement, but a significantly increased risk was observed in the highest quartile of total riboflavin intake (food and supplements) compared to the lowest one.…”

Prognostic impact of B‐vitamins involved in one‐carbon metabolism in patients with diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma

“…To our knowledge, this is the first report on the potential interaction between serum B‐vitamin alterations and their prognostic values in DLBCL. Previous studies indicated no significant impact of daily intake of vitamin B2 on cancer risks, such as urothelial cell carcinoma, 40 colorectal cancer 41 and NHL 42‐44 . Daily intake of B vitamins, instead of serum B vitamins, were collected in these articles, which could lead to different conclusions.…”