Long‐term dietary acrylamide intake and risk of endometrial cancer in a prospective cohort of Swedish women

Abstract

Acrylamide has been found in foods heated at high temperatures and there is evidence of carcinogenicity of acrylamide in experimental animals. However, the potential health risks of dietary acrylamide intake in humans remain uncertain. We examined the association between dietary acrylamide intake and the incidence of endometrial cancer among 61,226 participants of the Swedish Mammography Cohort who were cancer-free at enrollment in 1987-1990 and completed a food frequency questionnaire at baseline and again in 1997. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate rate ratios with 95% confidence intervals, adjusted for endometrial cancer risk factors. During a mean follow-up of 17.7 years, a total of 687 incident cases of endometrial adenocarcinoma were diagnosed in the cohort. We found no association between long-term acrylamide intake and risk of endometrial cancer. The multivariate rate ratio of endometrial cancer for women in the highest quartile of acrylamide intake (mean, 33.8 microg/day) compared to those in the lowest quartile (mean, 15.9 microg/day) was 0.96 (95% CI, 0.76-1.21). The association did not vary materially by smoking status. In conclusion, these findings do not support the hypothesis that dietary acrylamide intake is positively associated with risk of endometrial cancer, at least not within the ranges of acrylamide consumed in this population.