Folate Doesnt Reduce Pancreatic Cancer Risk

MAASTRICHT, The Netherlands—Results from a recent study did not support a protective association of total dietary folate or individual folate vitamers on the risk of pancreatic cancer (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2009;18(6):1785–91). The association between dietary folate intake and risk of pancreatic cancer within the Netherlands Cohort Study on diet and cancer was examined. Men and women (120,852), ages 55 to 69 years, were recruited. Information on diet was collected at baseline by means of food frequency questionnaires, and the cohort was followed for 13.3 years. A total of 364 cases were identified by record linkage with regional cancer registries and the Dutch National Database of Pathology Reports. After adjusting for age, gender, smoking status, number of years smoked, number of cigarettes smoked per day and intake of added sugar multivariate hazard ratio comparing the highest and lowest quintiles of folate intake for pancreatic cancer risk was 1.37. When folate vitamers were analyzed separately, results did not show a difference in association.