Abstract
BackgroundAs pancreatic cancer (PC) is a malignancy with poor prognosis, finding strategies for its prevention became a notable priority. Among all the factors influencing the risk of PC, dietary items especially fats are considered as the most modifiable risk factors.This study is designed to assess the associations of dietary intake of fatty acids with the risk of PC incidence.MethodsA total of 50,045 adults between 40 and 75 years old participated in this cohort study in 2004–2008 and were followed up to the present. Intakes of fatty acids was evaluated by validated food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to estimate hazard ratio (HR) with 95 % confidence interval of differing levels of dietary intakes of fatty acids for incidence of PC.ResultsAt the end of follow-up period, 76 cases of PC were identified and 46,904 participants without history of cancer, acute kidney disorders, fibrosis and cirrhosis were included in the study. Dietary total saturated fatty acids (SFAS) was associated with PC risk (HR = 1.05 (1.01–1.09), Ptrend=0.01), whereas dietary total monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAS) was inversely associated with the risk of PC (HR = 0.92 (0.86–0.99), Ptrend=0.04). Dietary total polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAS) did show a protective but not significant association with the risk of PC (HR = 0.91(0.84-1.00), Ptrend=0.05).ConclusionsThe amount of total fat intake is not a risk factor for PC in our study and focusing on the intake of specific fatty acids becomes more striking. Unsaturated fatty acids including PUFAS and especially MUFAS are considered as protective dietary factors in PC prevention. In contrast, total SFAS is positively associated with the increased risk of PC. However, very long chain and odd-chain saturated fatty acids intake may be protective against PC.
Highlights
As pancreatic cancer (PC) is a malignancy with poor prognosis, finding strategies for its prevention became a notable priority
The study aimed at investigating the risk factors of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), which were highly prevalent in that district
We found that people who consume high amount of dietary total saturated fatty acids (SFAS) are more likely to develop PC; this might be the result of high percentage of stearic acid (18:0) intake which accounted for about 50 % of the total SFAS intake in our study population, and is significantly associated with the increased risk of PC
Summary
As pancreatic cancer (PC) is a malignancy with poor prognosis, finding strategies for its prevention became a notable priority. Pancreatic cancer (PC), as the seventh leading cause of cancer death among women and men, is a challenging malignancy with poor prognosis [1]. This dismal prognosis and short survival of PC patients is partly attributable. Dietary fat and its main components, fatty acids, are involved in the development of cancer [4]. Most of studies assessing the association of fat with the risk of PC have been conducted in cell line [6,7,8,9], animal models [10], interventional or case-control studies [11,12,13,14]. There are some cohort studies conducted worldwide on populations with dietary patterns different from those in our country [15,16,17,18]
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