PurposeTo date, the role of meat and fish intake in head–neck cancer (HNC) etiology is not well understood and prospective evidence is limited. This prompted us to study the association between meat, fish, and HNC subtypes, i.e., oral cavity cancer (OCC), oro- and hypopharyngeal cancer (OHPC), and laryngeal cancer (LC), within the Netherlands Cohort Study (NLCS).MethodsIn 1986, 120,852 participants (aged 55–69 years) completed a baseline 150-item food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), from which daily meat and fish intake were calculated. After 20.3 years of follow-up, 430 HNC overall (134 OCC, 90 OHPC and 203 LC) cases and 4,111 subcohort members were found to be eligible for case–cohort analysis. Multivariate hazard ratios were calculated using Cox’s proportional hazards model within quartiles of energy-adjusted meat and fish intake.ResultsProcessed meat intake, but not red meat intake, was positively associated with HNC overall [HR(Q4 vs. Q1) = 1.46, 95% CI 1.06–2.00; ptrend = 0.03]. Among HNC subtypes, processed meat was positively associated with OCC, while no associations were found with OHPC and LC. Fish intake was not associated with HNC risk. Tests for interaction did not reveal statistically significant interaction between meat, fish, and alcohol or smoking on HNC overall risk.ConclusionsIn this large cohort study, processed meat intake was positively associated with HNC overall and HNC subtype OCC, but not with OHPC and LC.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10552-017-0892-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

To investigate the association between dietary acrylanide and advanced prostate cancer, we examined acrylamide-gene interactions for advanced prostate cancer risk by using data from the Netherlands Cohort Study. Participants (n = 58,279 men) completed a baseline food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), from which daily acrylamide intake was calculated. At baseline, 2,411 men were randomly selected from the full cohort for case-cohort analysis. Fifty eight selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and two gene deletions in genes in acrylamide metabolism, DNA repair, sex steroid systems, and oxidative stress were analyzed. After 20.3 years of follow-up, 1,608 male subcohort members and 948 advanced prostate cancer cases were available for Cox analysis. Three SNPs showed a main association with advanced prostate cancer risk after multiple testing correction: catalase (CAT) rs511895, prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 (PTGS2) rs5275, and xeroderma pigmentosum group C (XPC) rs2228001. With respect to acrylamide-gene interactions, only rs1800566 in NAD(P)H quinone dehydrogenase 1 (NQO1) and rs2301241 in thioredoxin (TXN) showed a nominally statistically significant multiplicative interaction with acrylamide intake for advanced prostate cancer risk. After multiple testing corrections, none were statistically significant. In conclusion, no clear evidence was found for interaction between acrylamide intake and selected genetic variants for advanced prostate cancer risk.