Sugary drink consumption and risk of kidney and bladder cancer in Japanese adults

Chi Yan Leung,Ribeka Takachi,Masahiro Hashizume,Manami Inoue,Sarah Krull Abe,Norie Sawada,Shoichiro Tsugane,Motoki Iwasaki,Junko Ishihara,Taiki Yamaji

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-01103-x

Chi Yan Leung, Ribeka Takachi + Show 8 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-01103-x

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Abstract

Globally, sugary drinks are widely consumed, however, few epidemiologic studies have investigated the association between sugary drink consumption and risk of kidney and bladder cancer. We examined the association of sugary drinks with risk of kidney and bladder cancer in 73,024 participants from the Japan Public Health Center-based Prospective Study who reported no history of cancer. Sugary drink consumption was assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire at study baseline (1995–1999). Individuals were followed to December 31, 2013. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to calculate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). During 1,069,815 person years of follow-up, 169 kidney cancer and 297 bladder cancer cases were documented. After adjusting for potential confounders, no greater risk of kidney and bladder cancer was observed. However, sugary drink consumption was positively associated with the risk of kidney cancer (HR for 100 ml/day increase in consumption was 1.11 [95% CI 1.01–1.22]) and bladder cancer (HR for 100 ml/d increase in consumption was 1.11 [95% CI 1.01–1.22]) among women after exclusion of cases diagnosed in the first three years of follow-up. In this large prospective cohort, consumption of sugary drinks was significantly associated with a small increase in hazard ratio for kidney and bladder cancer among women after exclusion of cases diagnosed within the first three years.

Highlights

To date, evidence regarding the association of sugary drink consumption with kidney and bladder cancer is sparse, and findings are inconsistent[13,14,15,16]
In minimally adjusted and multivariable analyses, there was no association of sugary drink consumption with risk of kidney cancer in men and women combined (Table 2)
No association was found between sugary drink consumption and bladder cancer among both women and men (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

Evidence regarding the association of sugary drink consumption with kidney and bladder cancer is sparse, and findings are inconsistent[13,14,15,16]. No study has investigated potential mediators and modifiers of the albeit putative effect. There are concerns regarding reverse causality in prior literature, wherein early symptoms of undiagnosed cancer may affect sugary drink consumption habits. To fill this knowledge gap, we conducted a large prospective cohort study to investigate the association between sugary drink consumption and subsequent risk of kidney and bladder cancer over a 16-year median follow-up. We examined reverse causation and potential effects of mediation and modification by the prespecified variables of body mass index (BMI), diabetes, and hypertension

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