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Fruit and vegetable consumption is inversely associated with having pancreatic cancer

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Abstract

Objective

Studies on fruit, vegetable, fiber, and grain consumption and pancreatic cancer risk are inconclusive. We used a clinic-based case–control study specifically designed to address limitations of both cohort and case–control studies to examine the relationship.

Methods

Participants were excluded who reported changing their diet within 5 years prior to study entry. And 384 rapidly ascertained cases and 983 controls (frequency matched on age (±5 years), race, sex, and residence) completed epidemiologic surveys and 144-item food frequency questionnaires. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals were calculated using logistic regression adjusted for age, sex, smoking, body mass index, energy intake, and alcohol consumption.

Results

Comparing highest to lowest quintiles, we observed significant inverse associations (OR < 0.8) with significant trends (p trend < 0.05) for citrus, melon, and berries, other fruits, dark green vegetables, deep yellow vegetables, tomato, other vegetables, dry bean and pea, insoluble fiber, soluble fiber, whole grains, and orange/grapefruit juice, and an increased association with non-whole grains. Results were similar after adjusting for diabetes or total sugar intake.

Conclusions

We provide evidence that lower consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fiber is associated with having pancreatic cancer. This may have a role in developing prevention strategies.

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Abbreviations

BMI:

Body mass index

CI:

Confidence interval

DM:

Type 2 diabetes mellitus

FFQ:

Food frequency questionnaire

NCI:

National Cancer Institute

OR:

Odds ratios

p trend :

p-value from test for trend

WCRF/AICR:

World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research

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Acknowledgments

We thank all the study participants and the pancreatic cancer research team members for their contributions to the study, including Jodie Cogswell, Cindy Wong, Mary Rahman, Mary Karaus, Bridget Eversman, Megan Reichmann, Que Luu, Kim-Tuyen Vu, Martha Matsumoto, Robert McWilliams, M.D., and Patrick Burch, M.D. Funding Mayo Clinic SPORE in Pancreatic Cancer (P50 CA102701); RJJ is supported by the Mayo Clinic Cancer Genetic Epidemiology Training Program (R25 CA92049).

Conflicts of interest

None declared.

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Correspondence to Rick J. Jansen.

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Jansen, R.J., Robinson, D.P., Stolzenberg-Solomon, R.Z. et al. Fruit and vegetable consumption is inversely associated with having pancreatic cancer. Cancer Causes Control 22, 1613–1625 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-011-9838-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-011-9838-0

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