Mineral Intake and Lung Cancer Risk in the NIH-American Association of Retired Persons Diet and Health Study

Abstract

Background: Using data from a case-control study, we previously reported that low dietary intakes of magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), but not selenium (Se) and calcium (Ca), were associated with increased lung cancer risk. Due to dietary recall bias in case-control studies, our objective was to assess whether these findings hold in a prospective cohort study.Methods: We analyzed data from the NIH-American Association of Retired Persons Diet and Health study of 482,875 subjects (288,257 men and 194,618 women) who were cancer-free and completed a food frequency questionnaire at enrollment between 1995 and 2003. Cox proportional hazards models were computed to estimate the relative risk adjusted for potential confounders.Results: During a mean follow-up of 7 years, 7,052 lung cancer cases were identified. For all subjects, we observed no significant associations between total (diet + supplement) Ca, Mg, Fe, Cu, Se, and Zn intakes and lung cancer risk. Total Ca intake was protective (P trend < 0.05) for current smokers and subjects with adenocarcinomas. Total Mg intake increased risk (P trend < 0.05) in men and current smokers. Total Fe intake was inversely associated with risk in women (P trend < 0.01). For dietary minerals, Mg increased risk (P trend < 0.05) in all subjects, among men and current smokers. Increased dietary Ca intake reduced risk in women (P trend = 0.05). Dietary Fe decreased risk in all subjects and among women (P trend < 0.05). Mineral intake from supplements did not affect lung cancer risk.Conclusions: Dietary minerals are risk factors for lung cancer. Impact: Dietary mineral consumption may influence lung cancer risk, but the associations differ by type of mineral and population subgroups. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 19(8); 1976-83. ©2010 AACR.

Vitamin D intake and lung cancer risk in the Women’s Health Initiative

“…In addition, we were unable to isolate the effect of vitamin D from that of calcium in the Calcium/Vitamin D Trial supplementation. This limited our inferential ability because a high dietary calcium intake has been linked to lower risks of total lung cancer and adenocarcinoma in smokers and nonsmokers (34,35). Furthermore, we observed a positive association of the Calcium/Vitamin D Trial active intervention with lung cancer risk among current smokers with excess total vitamin A intake.…”

“…In addition, we performed lag analyses for the Calcium/Vitamin D Trial active intervention by assessing the effect 1 and 2 y after the randomization and by extending the follow-up to years 1, 2, and 3 in the posttrial period. Also, because high calcium intake is associated with a lower risk of lung cancer (34,35), we stratified data by total calcium intake ($1 or ,1 g/d) to investigate whether it modified the association of the Calcium/Vitamin D Trial active intervention with lung cancer risk. All statistical tests were 2-sided; statistical significance was defined as P , 0.05.…”

Magnesium in Man: Implications for Health and Disease

“…In addition, in a study with 1,200 lung cancer patients and a similar number of controls, low dietary Mg 2ϩ intake was associated with reduced lung cancer risk (326). However, these results could not be reproduced in other patient cohorts (325,502).…”

Magnesium in the Central Nervous System

“…by regulating cell multiplication and protecting against oxidative stress, invariably associated with Mg deficiency (Guerrero--Romero and Rodriguez--Moràn, 2006). Unexpectedly, these results were not supported by a recent prospective analysis which showed that dietary Mg intake slightly increased lung cancer risk (Mahabir et al, 2010). These contrasting data could result from recall bias.…”