American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access originally published online on September 18, 2007
American Journal of Epidemiology 2007 166(10):1174-1185; doi:10.1093/aje/kwm194
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ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS |
Whole Grains and Risk of Pancreatic Cancer in a Large Population-based Case-Control Study in the San Francisco Bay Area, California
1 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
2 Department of Urology, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
3 Department of Health Research and Policy, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Correspondence to Dr. Elizabeth A. Holly, Box 1228, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, 3333 California Street, Suite 280, San Francisco, CA 94118-1944 (e-mail: elizabeth.holly{at}ucsf.edu, furong.wang{at}ucsf.edu).
Received for publication December 26, 2006. Accepted for publication May 31, 2007.
Epidemiologic data suggest that consumption of whole-grain products may be inversely associated with risk of pancreatic cancer. Grain intake was examined in a population-based case-control study of pancreatic cancer in the San Francisco Bay Area (1995–1999). A 131-item semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire was administered to 532 cases and 1,701 controls. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were computed as estimates of relative risk. Persons who consumed 
2 servings of whole grains daily had a lower risk of pancreatic cancer than persons who consumed <1 serving/day (odds ratio (OR) = 0.60, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.31, 1.2; trend-p = 0.04). Similar results were observed for brown rice (OR = 0.72, 95% CI: 0.44, 1.2; trend-p = 0.01) and tortillas (OR = 0.56, 95% CI: 0.35, 0.89; trend-p = 0.02). Consumption of doughnuts (2 servings/week vs. <1 serving/month) conferred increased risk (OR = 1.8, 95% CI: 1.2, 2.7; trend-p = 0.003). Consumption of cooked breakfast cereals (2 servings/week vs. <1 serving/month) was positively associated with risk (for oatmeal/oat bran, OR = 1.3, 95% CI: 1.0, 1.7; for other cooked breakfast cereals, OR = 2.1, 95% CI: 1.4, 3.3). Dietary fiber was inversely associated with risk (for highest quartile vs. lowest, OR = 0.65, 95% CI: 0.47, 0.89; trend-p = 0.02). These data provide some support for the hypothesis that consuming more whole-grain or high-fiber foods may reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer. Refined grains were not associated with risk.
case-control studies; cereals; diet surveys; dietary fiber; pancreatic neoplasms
Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; OR, odds ratio