AACR. US: Women who drank about four cups of
coffee per day appeared to have decreased endometrial cancer risk
compared with those who drank less than a cup each day, according to a study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
“We
used a ‘nutrient-wide association study,’ a new approach to
systematically evaluate the association of dietary factors with
endometrial cancer risk,” said Melissa A. Merritt, PhD, a research fellow in cancer epidemiology at Imperial College London
in the United Kingdom. “This approach was inspired by genome-wide
association studies that look at genetic risk factors for cancer, but in
our case we investigated 84 foods and nutrients in place of genes as
risk factors for endometrial cancer.
“We confirmed observations
from previous studies that having a high versus low intake of coffee was
associated with a reduced risk for endometrial cancer, and for most
other dietary factors there was no association with endometrial cancer
risk,” Merritt added.
“Coffee intake is worth investigating
further to see if coffee can be used for the prevention of endometrial
cancer. However, before clinical recommendations can be made, further
studies are needed to evaluate this question in other studies and to try
to isolate the components of coffee that may be responsible for any
influence on endometrial cancer,” Merritt said.
Merritt and
colleagues evaluated the association of 84 foods and nutrients based on
dietary questionnaires from a prospective cohort study, the European
Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) Study. They
then validated nine foods and nutrients identified from the EPIC study
as having associations with endometrial cancer risk in two prospective
cohort studies, the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and NHSII, two cohorts
based at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, and Harvard School of
Public Health, Boston, respectively.
Among the EPIC study
participants, those who drank about three cups of coffee per day (750
g/day) had a 19 percent lower risk for endometrial cancer compared with
those who drank less than one cup of coffee per day. Among the NHS/NHSII
participants, those who drank about four cups of coffee per day (1,000
g/day) had an 18 percent lower risk for endometrial cancer compared with
those who never drank coffee.
This study focused on 1,303
endometrial cancer cases in the EPIC study, and 1,531 endometrial cancer
cases from the NHS/NHSII studies.
The nine foods/nutrients that
were found to have associations with endometrial cancer in the EPIC
cohort were total fat, monounsaturated fat, carbohydrates, phosphorus,
butter, yogurt, cheese, potatoes, and coffee.
Total fat,
monounsaturated fat, and phosphorus were associated with decreased risk
for endometrial cancer, and carbohydrates and butter intake were
associated with increased risk for endometrial cancer in the EPIC
cohort, but these findings could not be validated in the NHS/NHSII
cohorts.
The coordination of EPIC is financially supported by the
European Commission (DGSANCO) and the International Agency for Research
on Cancer. The national cohorts are supported by Danish Cancer Society
(Denmark); Ligue Contre le Cancer, Institut Gustave Roussy, Mutuelle
Générale de l’Education Nationale, Institut National de la Santé et de
la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) (France); Deutsche Krebshilfe, Deutsches
Krebsforschungszentrum and Federal Ministry of Education and Research
(Germany); the Hellenic Health Foundation (Greece); Associazione
Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro-AIRC (Italy); Dutch Ministry of
Public Health, Welfare and Sports (VWS), Netherlands Cancer Registry
(NKR), LK Research Funds, Dutch Prevention Funds, Dutch ZON (Zorg
Onderzoek Nederland), World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), Statistics
Netherlands (Netherlands); ERC-2009-AdG 232997 and Nordforsk, Nordic
Center of Excellence Program on Food, Nutrition, and Health (Norway);
Health Research Fund (FIS), Regional Governments of Andalucía, Asturias,
Basque Country, Murcia (no. 6236) and Navarra, ISCIII RETIC (Spain);
Swedish Cancer Society, Swedish Scientific Council and County Councils
of Skåne and Västerbotten (Sweden); Cancer Research U.K., Medical
Research Council (United Kingdom). The NHS/NHSII were supported by the
National Institutes of Health. Merritt declares no conflicts of
interest.