Associations between adherence to the World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research cancer prevention recommendations and biomarkers of inflammation, hormonal, and insulin response

Abstract

Adherence to the 2007 WCRF/AICR cancer prevention recommendations has been associated with lower cancer risk but the underlying biological mechanisms have not been elucidated. We utilized dietary and lifestyle data from 11,342 women in the Nurses’ Health Study and 8,136 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, to investigate associations between adherence scores and markers of inflammation, hormonal and insulin response. Two scores ranging from 0 to 3 were constructed to assess adherence to the energy balance-related recommendations (weight management, physical activity, energy density); and the plant, animal foods and alcohol intake recommendations; with higher scores indicating greater adherence. The following biomarkers were assessed in plasma samples donated by chronic disease-free women (1990) and men (1994): C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL6), tumor necrosis factor alpha receptor 2 (TNFαR2) and adiponectin for inflammation; estrone and estradiol for hormonal response in women, C-peptide for hyperinsulinemia; and triglycerides/high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (TG/HDL) ratio for insulin resistance. In multivariable-adjusted linear regression analyses, we estimated relative concentrations of biomarkers across adherence categories. There was a significant trend of lower (higher for adiponectin) biomarker concentrations with higher adherence to the energy balance recommendations (all P-trend<0.0001). Comparing the highest (3) to the lowest recommendation category (0–1), the percent difference in relative concentrations of biomarkers was CRP, −69%; IL6, −41%; TNFαR2, −13%; adiponectin, +36; C-peptide, −43%; TG/HDL, −43%; estrone, −31%; and estradiol, −43%; in women; and CRP, −59%; IL6, −42%; TNFαR2, −10%; adiponectin, +22%; C-peptide, −44%; and TG/HDL, −40%; in men. In contrast, associations between adherence to the plant, animal foods and alcohol intake recommendations and biomarker concentrations were weaker, and mostly nonsignificant. The healthier biomarker profile associated with greater adherence to the WCRF/AICR cancer prevention recommendations is driven mainly by adherence to the energy balance-related recommendations.

Dietary Patterns and Colorectal Cancer Risk: a Review of 17 Years of Evidence (2000–2016)

“…The studies reviewed, used one or more of the following dietary indices: healthy eating index (HEI-2005 and HEI-2010. No study applied the HEI-2015 in the period covered by this review) [12], alternative healthy eating index (AHEI-2010) [13], several versions of the Mediterranean dietary pattern score [14, 15], dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) [16], dietary inflammatory index (DII) [17], adherence score to the World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research 2007 cancer prevention recommendations (WCRF/AICR) [18], and recommended food score [19]. Methods for the derivation of each dietary index are described in detail under results separately.…”

Nutritional and environmental risk factors for breast cancer: a case-control study

“…The etiology of breast cancer is still poorly understood and the known risk factors only explain a small proportion of cases. It is known that cancer is the result of an interaction between endogenous and environmental factors, and dietary habits are among them [4,5]. Among the factors documented for the increase in breast cancer incidence, hereditary factors (genetic and family history) and some environmental factors standout, such as poor eating habits (for example, low consumption of fruit and high consumption of ultra-processed foods), physical inactivity, exposure to smoking and alcohol intake [6,7].…”

Sex-Specific Association between Family History of Diabetes and Risk of Colorectal Cancer: Two Prospective Cohort Studies

“…Upon arrival, samples were centrifuged and aliquoted into cryotubes as plasma, buffy coat, and erythrocyte fractions, which were then stored in liquid nitrogen freezers at -130 C or colder until analysis. We used data from previous matched case-control studies nested within each of the two cohorts that have measured plasma levels of colorectal cancer-related biomarkers (12,14,17,18), including C-peptide, IGF-1, IGF-binding protein (IGFBP)-1, IGFBP-3, estrone, estradiol, sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), testosterone, adiponectin, high-molecular-weight (HMW)-adiponectin, leptin, leptin soluble receptor (leptin sR), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin (IL)-6, and tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNFR)-2. All biomarkers were measured using standard methods (Supplementary Methods).…”