Nut Consumption and the Risk of Oesophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma in the Golestan Cohort Study Publisher Pubmed



Hashemian M^{1, 2, 3} ; Murphy G² ; Etemadi A^{1, 2} ; Poustchi H⁴ ; Sharafkhah M¹ ; Kamangar F^{1, 5} ; Pourshams A^{4, 6} ; Malekshah AF¹ ; Khoshnia M^{6, 7} ; Gharavi A^{6, 7} ; Hekmatdoost A⁸ ; Brennan PJ⁹ ; Boffetta P¹⁰ ; Dawsey SM² Show All Authors Show Affiliations
Source: British Journal of Cancer Published:2018

Abstract

Background: Nut consumption has been inversely associated with gastric cancer incidence in US-based studies, but not with oesophageal cancer. However, there is aetiologic heterogeneity, among oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) cases in low-risk vs. high-risk populations. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between nut consumption and risk of ESCC in a high-risk population. Methods: The Golestan Cohort Study enroled 50,045 participants in Northeastern Iran, between 2004 and 2008. Intake of peanuts, walnuts and mixed nuts (including seeds) were assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire at baseline. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals for subsequent ESCC adjusted for potential confounders. Non-consumers of nuts were used as the reference category and the consumers were categorised into tertiles. Results: We accrued 280 incident ESCC cases during 337,983 person-years of follow up. Individuals in the highest tertiles of total nut consumption, and mixed nut consumption were significantly associated with lower risk of developing ESCC compared to non-consumers (HR = 0.60, 95% CI = 0.39-0.93, p-trend = 0.02, and HR = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.32-0.84, p trend = 0.002, respectively). Conclusions: We found a statistically significant inverse association between total nut consumption and the risk of ESCC in this high-risk population. © 2018 Cancer Research UK.