Major dietary patterns in the United Kingdom Women's Cohort Study showed no evidence of prospective association with pancreatic cancer risk.

ABSTRACT

Diet is a modifiable risk factor for pancreatic cancer. We hypothesized that specific dietary patterns would increase/decrease pancreatic cancer risk. We evaluated the association of dietary patterns with pancreatic cancer risk in the UK Women's Cohort Study. Dietary patterns were assessed at enrollment using (1) self-reported practice of vegan/vegetarian dietary habits, (2) diet quality indices (World Health Organization Healthy Diet Indicator and Mediterranean Diet Score), and (3) principal component analysis-derived dietary patterns. The association of dietary patterns with pancreatic cancer incidence was quantified using Cox regression survival analysis. Over a median follow-up of 19 years of 35,365 respondents, there were 136 incident cases of pancreatic cancer. No association between dietary habits/quality and pancreatic cancer incidence was evident after adjustments (hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) self-reported omnivores vs vegan/vegetarian dietary habit 1.13 (0.73-1.76); per-unit increase in World Health Organization Healthy Diet Indicator scores 0.99 (0.91-1.09); per-unit increase in Mediterranean Diet Score 0.92 (0.83-1.02). Similarly, no association of principal component analysis-derived dietary patterns with pancreatic cancer risk was evident ("prudent" 1.02 [0.94-1.10]; ``meat-based'' 1.00 [0.92-1.09]; ``fast-food, sugar-sweetened beverages, and carbohydrate-rich snacks'' 0.96 [0.86-1.07]; ``cereal and dairy-rich'' 1.04 [0.94-1.16], and ``low-diversity and lowfat'' 1.00 [0.89-1.13]). In this prospective cohort of women, several major dietary patterns were of poor quality. There was no evidence of a prospective association between any of the dietary patterns explored and pancreatic cancer incidence.