Positive Health Online

Abstract

1. CRCHUM (Centre de recherche du CHUM) and Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Université de Montréal, 850 Saint-Denis Street, 2nd Floor, Montreal, QC, H2X 0A9, Canada, anita.koushik@umontreal.ca analyzed the associations between dietary and total (food and supplemental) vitamin intake and the risk of invasive epithelial ovarian cancer.

Background

Vitamins A, C, and E and folate have anticarcinogenic properties and thus might protect against cancer. Few known modifiable risk factors for ovarian cancer exist. We examined the associations between dietary and total (food and supplemental) vitamin intake and the risk of invasive epithelial ovarian cancer.

Methodology

The primary data from 10 prospective cohort studies in North America and Europe were analyzed. Vitamin intakes were estimated from validated food frequency questionnaires in each study. Study-specific relative risks (RRs) were estimated using the Cox proportional hazards model and then combined using a random-effects model.

Results

Among 501,857 women, 1,973 cases of ovarian cancer occurred over a median follow-up period of 7-16 years across studies. Dietary and total intakes of each vitamin were not significantly associated with ovarian cancer risk. The pooled multivariate RRs [95% confidence intervals (CIs)] for incremental increases in total intake of each vitamin were 1.02 (0.97-1.07) for vitamin A (increment: 1,300 mcg/day), 1.01 (0.99-1.04) for vitamin C (400 mg/day), 1.02 (0.97-1.06) for vitamin E (130 mg/day), and 1.01 (0.96-1.07) for folate (250 mcg/day). Multivitamin use (vs. nonuse) was not associated with ovarian cancer risk (pooled multivariate RR = 1.00, 95% CI 0.89-1.12). Associations did not vary substantially by study, or by subgroups of the population. Greater vitamin intakes were associated with modestly higher risks of endometrioid tumours (n = 156 cases), but not with other histological types.

Conclusion

These results suggest that consumption of vitamins A, C, and E and folate during adulthood does not play a major role in ovarian cancer risk.

References

Koushik A1, Wang M, Anderson KE, van den Brandt P, Clendenen TV, Eliassen AH, Freudenheim JL, Genkinger JM, Håkansson N, Marshall JR, McCullough ML, Miller AB, Robien K, Rohan TE, Schairer C, Schouten LJ, Tworoger SS, Wang Y, Wolk A, Zeleniuch-Jacquotte A, Smith-Warner SA. Intake of vitamins A, C, and E and folate and the risk of ovarian cancer in a pooled analysis of 10 cohort studies. Cancer Causes Control.; 26(9):1315-27. Sep  2015. doi: 10.1007/s10552-015-0626-0. Epub Jul 14 2015.