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4 Department of Biostatistics and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center/Cancer Biostatistics Center; 5 Division of General Internal Medicine and Public Health, 6 Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center, 7 Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, 8 Division of Gastroenterology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37232; 9 Department of Veterans Affairs, Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, Geriatric, Research, Education and Clinical Center (GRECC), Nashville, TN 37212
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: wei.zheng{at}vanderbilt.edu.
| ABSTRACT |
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| Introduction |
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Many factors may contribute to the inconsistency and contradiction (21). One possible biological explanation is that dietary components may affect an early stage of carcinogenesis and, thus, may only affect primary adenomas, not adenoma recurrence (19,22). In support of this possibility, previous epidemiologic studies have found that intakes of total fruits (22–25) and total vegetables (26–28) were associated with a reduced adenoma risk. These studies also suggested that intakes of certain fruits or vegetables, such as citrus fruits (22), legumes (22,28), dry beans (16), and green leafy vegetables (22,27) might be strongly protective against colorectal adenoma. However, no associations have been reported in some other studies (29–31).
In this article, we examine whether intakes of fruits and vegetables were related to a reduced risk of primary colorectal adenomas in a large colonoscopy-based case-control study, with a special interest in the intakes of subgroups of fruits and vegetables.
| Materials and Methods |
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Dietary assessment. Dietary assessment was conducted within 13 d after the colonoscopy. Dietary intake in the 12 mo prior to colonoscopy was ascertained using a validated 108-item semiquantitative FFQ, which was developed at Vanderbilt University specifically to capture diet in the southern United States (32). Briefly, food items were identified from the NHANES-III database using relevant groups. In a comparison of the pilot FFQ data with NHANES-III data, the energy-adjusted intakes were very similar (0.96, 0.92, and 1.01 for total fat, protein, and carbohydrate, respectively). Response categories were "never, rarely, 1/mo, 2–3/mo, 1/wk, 2–3/wk, 4–6/wk, 1/d, or 2+/d." Participants were also asked about their usual serving size: small, medium, or large. Fruits and vegetables were classified according to their botanical taxonomy and phytochemical content to identify the fruits and vegetables that may be potentially rich sources of vitamins or bioactive components (33) (Supplemental Table 1). Fruit and vegetable intakes were normalized with the usual portion size and expressed in servings/wk. The FFQ was completed by 764 cases and 1525 controls. Participants with 14 or more missing items in the FFQ or with total caloric intake outside the range of 3349–17,585 kJ/d for males and 2512–14,654 kJ/d for females were excluded from the analysis. The final data for the analysis consisted of 764 cases and 1517 controls.
Statistical analysis. We used chi-square statistics and Wilcoxon's rank sum test to evaluate case-control differences. Both restricted cubic spline regression and categorical regression were used with an unconditional logistic regression model to examine the association between dietary intake and adenoma risk. Energy intake adjustment was performed by entering energy intake into the model (34). Intakes of fruits or vegetables were mutually adjusted for in the model. Other potential confounders, including other dietary factors, were selected for evaluation in accordance with previous studies (22,25–28,31). The final model adjusted for age, sex, race, study location, BMI, smoking status, regular alcohol consumption (5 or more drinks/wk for at least 12 mo in a row), nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug use, physical exercise, educational attainment, household income, family history of colorectal cancer in a first-degree relative, and red/processed meat intake (including hamburgers, cheeseburgers, beef, pork, and their regular products). The colinearity among the covariates was also analyzed. P-values of <0.05 (2-sided) were considered significant. All calculations and computations were performed using R package version 2.4.0 (35).
| Results |
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| Discussion |
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No study has evaluated the association between adenoma risk and berry intake alone (23). A number of studies have suggested the potential chemopreventive properties of berries (40,41). Berries possess much more potent antioxidant activity compared with other fruits and vegetables (41). A clinical trial found that berry powder caused an approximate 50% regression rate of rectal polyps (40). Two case-control studies have looked at the relationship between fruit juice drinking and adenoma risk with a protective result in one study and no association in the other (27,31). The disparity between our results and previous reports may be ascribable to the differences in fruit availability and/or eating habits from different regions (42). Our study has been the only study conducted in southern states.
To date, 4 studies have examined intake of green leafy vegetables; 2 showed protective effects (22,27) and 2 observed no associations (30,31). The protective effects of green leafy vegetables in our study were very similar to the NHS (22). Our finding may also suggest that only some subgroups of vegetables are protective or more protective than others, because the protection by total vegetable intake was not significant (16). Folate's central function is in maintaining DNA integrity; it is rich in green leafy vegetables and has benefits in cancer prevention when administered prior to the existence of preneoplastic lesions (19). However, studies have found increased colorectal neoplasia when folate is administered after lesions are present (43). A recent clinical trial also did not observe risk reduction by folate supplementation for participants with a recent history of colorectal adenomas (44).
Antioxidants or other phytochemicals may have cancer-inhibitory effects in an early stage of carcinogenesis (45,46), whereas they may stimulate the growth during tumor promotion (46) (19). This may explain the results from randomized clinical trials in which adenoma recurrence, not primary adenoma, were used as the endpoint (15–18). Undetected early adenoma precursor lesions may have already been present in the participants' mucosa in these studies (44). Therefore, the time course may not be long enough for specific dietary components to function (19). This possibility could contribute to the NHS finding in which the risk reduction by fruits and vegetables was more pronounced in incident adenomas relative to prevalent adenomas (22). This potential time period issue is also supported by the observation that fruit intake had no significant effects on colorectal carcinoma risk in both the NHS and the Health Professionals' Follow-up Study (47), but fruit intake reduced adenoma risk in the same 2 cohorts (22,38).
The present study has several strengths. Participants were excluded with prior history of adenomatous polyps, a condition that may relate to a change in dietary habits. We included only controls undergoing a full colonoscopy throughout colon and rectum; thus, the potential contamination of cases in the control group is not a major concern. The FFQ was developed specifically to capture diet in the southern United States. Furthermore, most participants were recruited before the colonoscopy that defined their case or control status. Thus, controls were not any less likely to participate in the study than cases. In this study, spline regression provided more complete information about the association in addition to a more appropriately estimated odds ratio (OR) and better fit for skewed data. By contrast, regression of average risk on average exposures as with categorical regression can inaccurately present the exposure effects if those effects are nonlinear within categories (48) as demonstrated in our study. There are also some concerns or limitations in the study. Dietary intake was assessed a few days after the diagnosis; therefore, recall bias may be a concern. The maximum intake frequency included on the FFQ was
2 times/d. It is possible that, if a higher threshold exists, we were unable to distinguish it. However, only a very small fraction of participants reported such high consumption for a particular item. Additionally, the ability to distinguish higher intake levels would not have changed the observed findings but, instead, would have improved the effect size. In the study, controls were slightly more likely to undergo a colonoscopy due to family history. However, there were no appreciable differences in effect estimates in stratified analysis by colonoscopy indication. Selection bias is another potential concern, but we have found that age, sex, study site, and the reasons for the colonoscopy did not differ substantially between persons who did or did not consent to participate in the study. Although we adjusted for many confounding factors, residual confounding may still arise when there were measurement errors in confounding factors (16,22).
In conclusion, the findings from this study suggest that an increase in total fruit intake and certain fruit and vegetable intake may reduce the risk for colorectal adenomas. The inverse associations between intake of berries and green leafy vegetables and adenoma risk are relatively new and should be evaluated in other study populations.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| FOOTNOTES |
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2 Author disclosures: H. Wu, Q. Dai, M. J. Shrubsole, R. M. Ness, D. Schlundt, W. E. Smalley, H. Chen, M. Li, Y. Shyr, and W. Zheng, no conflicts of interest. ![]()
3 Supplemental Table 1 and Supplemental Figure 1 are available with the online posting of this paper at jn.nutrition.org. ![]()
10 Abbreviations used: NHS, Nurses' Health Study; OR, odds ratio; TCPS, Tennessee Colorectal Polyp Study. ![]()
Manuscript received 25 August 2008. Initial review completed 23 September 2008. Revision accepted 18 November 2008.
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