Grain and dietary fiber intake and bladder cancer risk: a pooled analysis of prospective cohort studies.

Higher intakes of whole grains and dietary fiber have been associated with lower risk of insulin resistance, hyperinsulinemia, and inflammation, which are known predisposing factors for cancer.

Because the evidence of association with bladder cancer (BC) is limited, we aimed to assess associations with BC risk for intakes of whole grains, refined grains, and dietary fiber.

We pooled individual data from 574,726 participants in 13 cohort studies, 3214 of whom developed incident BC. HRs, with corresponding 95% CIs, were estimated using Cox regression models stratified on cohort. Dose-response relations were examined using fractional polynomial regression models.

We found that higher intake of total whole grain was associated with lower risk of BC (comparing highest with lowest intake tertile: HR: 0.87; 95% CI: 0.77, 0.98; HR per 1-SD increment: 0.95; 95% CI: 0.91, 0.99; P for trend: 0.023). No association was observed for intake of total refined grain. Intake of total dietary fiber was also inversely associated with BC risk (comparing highest with lowest intake tertile: HR: 0.86; 95% CI: 0.76, 0.98; HR per 1-SD increment: 0.91; 95% CI: 0.82, 0.98; P for trend: 0.021). In addition, dose-response analyses gave estimated HRs of 0.97 (95% CI: 0.95, 0.99) for intake of total whole grain and 0.96 (95% CI: 0.94, 0.98) for intake of total dietary fiber per 5-g daily increment. When considered jointly, highest intake of whole grains with the highest intake of dietary fiber showed 28% reduced risk (95% CI: 0.54, 0.93; P for trend: 0.031) of BC compared with the lowest intakes, suggesting potential synergism.

Higher intakes of total whole grain and total dietary fiber are associated with reduced risk of BC individually and jointly. Further studies are needed to clarify the underlying mechanisms for these findings.

The American journal of clinical nutrition. 2020 Aug 10 [Epub ahead of print]

Evan Y W Yu, Anke Wesselius, Siamak Mehrkanoon, Maree Brinkman, Piet van den Brandt, Emily White, Elisabete Weiderpass, Florence Le Calvez-Kelm, Marc Gunter, Inge Huybrechts, Fredrik Liedberg, Guri Skeie, Anne Tjonneland, Elio Riboli, Graham G Giles, Roger L Milne, Maurice P Zeegers

Department of Complex Genetics and Epidemiology, School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands., Department of Data Science and Knowledge Engineering, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands., Department of Epidemiology, School for Oncology and Developmental Biology, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, Netherlands., Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA., International Agency for Research on Cancer/WHO, Lyon, France., Department of Urology, Skåne University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden., Department of Community Medicine, UIT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway., Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark., Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom., Cancer Epidemiology Division, Cancer Council Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.