Dietary fat, fatty acid intakes and colorectal cancer risk... : European Journal of Cancer Prevention (original) (raw)

Research Papers: Gastrointestinal Cancer

a case–control study

Zhong, Xiaoa*; Fang, Yu-Jingb*; Pan, Zhi-Zhongb; Li, Bina; Wang, Liana; Zheng, Mei-Chunb; Chen, Yu-Minga; Zhang, Cai-Xiaa

aDepartment of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University

bDepartment of Colorectal Surgery, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

*Xiao Zhong and Yu-Jing Fang contributed equally to the writing of this article.

Correspondence to Cai-Xia Zhang, PhD, Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, People’s Republic of China Tel: +86 20 87331943; fax: +86 20 87330446; e-mail: [email protected]

Received September 19, 2012

Accepted January 4, 2013

Abstract

The associations between dietary fat intakes and the risk of colorectal cancer have been examined in many epidemiological studies, but the results have remained inconsistent. This study aimed to examine the associations of total fat and fatty acid intakes with the risk of colorectal cancer in Guangzhou, China. A case–control study was carried out between July 2010 and May 2012 in Guangzhou, China. Four hundred and eighty-nine consecutively recruited colorectal cancer cases were frequency matched to 976 controls by age (5-year interval) and sex. A validated food frequency questionnaire was used to collect dietary information by face-to-face interviews. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The total fat intake was not related to the risk of colorectal cancer, with an OR (95% CI) of 0.95 (0.68–1.32) comparing the highest with the lowest quartiles. Intakes of saturated fat, monounsaturated fat, and n-6 polyunsaturated fat were also not associated with the risk of colorectal cancer. However, a significant inverse association was found between total n-3 polyunsaturated fat, α-linolenic acid, and long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fat consumption and the risk of colorectal cancer. The adjusted ORs of the highest versus the lowest quartile were 0.45 (95% CI=0.32–0.64, _P_trend<0.01) for total n-3 polyunsaturated fat, 0.54 (95% CI=0.38–0.76, _P_trend<0.01) for α-linolenic acid, and 0.58 (95% CI=0.41–0.82, _P_trend<0.01) for long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fat. This study suggested that total fat, saturated fat, monounsaturated fat, and n-6 polyunsaturated fat intakes were not related to the risk of colorectal cancer. However, increased consumption of n-3 polyunsaturated fat might reduce the risk.