Dairy consumption and risks of total and site-specific cancers in Chinese adults: an 11-year prospective study of 0.5 million people
Maria Kakkoura, Huaidong Du, Canqing Yu, Canqing Yu, Ling Yang, Pei Pei, Yiping Chen, Sam Sansome, Wing Ching Chan, Xiaoming Yang, Lei Fan, Jun Lv, Junshi Chen, Liming Li, Timothy J. Key, Zhengming Chen, on behalf of the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) Collaborative Group, Junshi Chen, Zhengming Chen, Robert Clarke, Rory Collins, Canqing Yu, Liming Li, Chen Wang, Jun Lv, Richard Peto, Robin Walters, Daniel Avery, Derrick Bennett, Ruth Boxall, Ka Hung Chan, Yu‐Mei Chang, Yiping Chen, Johnathan Clarke, Huaidong Du, Zammy Fairhurst-Hunter, Hannah Fry, Simon Gilbert, Alex Hacker, Mike Hill, Michael V. Holmes, Pek Kei Im, Andri Iona, Maria Kakkoura, Christiana Kartsonaki, Rene Kerosi, Kuang Lin, Mohsen Mazidi, Iona Y. Millwood, Qunhua Nie, Alfred Pozarickij, Paul Ryder, Saredo Said, Sam Sansome, Dan Schmidt, Paul Sherliker, Rajani Sohoni, Becky Stevens, Iain Turnbull, Lin Wang, Neil Wright, Ling Yang, Xiaoming Yang, Pang Yao, Xiao Han, Can Hou, Qingmei Xia, Chao Liu, Pei Pei, Canqing Yu, Naying Chen, Duo Liu, Zhenzhu Tang, Ningyu Chen, Qilian Jiang, Jian Lan, Mingqiang Li, Yun Liu, Fanwen Meng, Jinhuai Meng, Rong Pan, Yulu Qin, Ping Wang, Sisi Wang, Liuping Wei, Liyuan Zhou, Caixia Dong, Pengfei Ge, Xiaolan Ren, Zhongxiao Li, Enke Mao, Tao Wang, Hui Zhang, Xi Zhang, Jinyan Chen, Ximin Hu, Xiaohuan Wang, Zhendong Guo, Huimei Li, Yilei Li
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Previous studies of primarily Western populations have reported contrasting associations of dairy consumption with certain cancers, including a positive association with prostate cancer and inverse associations with colorectal and premenopausal breast cancers. However, there are limited data from China where cancer rates and levels of dairy consumption differ importantly from those in Western populations. METHODS: The prospective China Kadoorie Biobank study recruited ~0.5 million adults from ten diverse (five urban, five rural) areas across China during 2004-2008. Consumption frequency of major food groups, including dairy products, was collected at baseline and subsequent resurveys, using a validated interviewer-administered laptop-based food frequency questionnaire. To quantify the linear association of dairy intake and cancer risk and to account for regression dilution bias, the mean usual consumption amount for each baseline group was estimated via combining the consumption level at both baseline and the second resurvey. During a mean follow-up of 10.8 (SD 2.0) years, 29,277 incident cancer cases were recorded among the 510,146 participants who were free of cancer at baseline. Cox regression analyses for incident cancers associated with usual dairy intake were stratified by age-at-risk, sex and region and adjusted for cancer family history, education, income, alcohol intake, smoking, physical activity, soy and fresh fruit intake, and body mass index. RESULTS: Overall, 20.4% of participants reported consuming dairy products (mainly milk) regularly (i.e. ≥1 day/week), with the estimated mean consumption of 80.8 g/day among regular consumers and of 37.9 g/day among all participants. There were significant positive associations of dairy consumption with risks of total and certain site-specific cancers, with adjusted HRs per 50 g/day usual consumption being 1.07 (95% CI 1.04-1.10), 1.12 (1.02-1.22), 1.19 (1.01-1.41) and 1.17 (1.07-1.29) for total cancer, liver cancer (n = 3191), female breast cancer (n = 2582) and lymphoma (n=915), respectively. However, the association with lymphoma was not statistically significant after correcting for multiple testing. No significant associations were observed for colorectal cancer (n = 3350, 1.08 [1.00-1.17]) or other site-specific cancers. CONCLUSION: Among Chinese adults who had relatively lower dairy consumption than Western populations, higher dairy intake was associated with higher risks of liver cancer, female breast cancer and, possibly, lymphoma.