The association of dietary intake and plasma fatty acid panel in pancreatic cancer patients: Results from Golestan cohort study.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: High mortality rate of pancreatic cancer (PC) as one of the most common cancers worldwide made it a center of attention for recent researches on its pathology, etiology, screening and early diagnosis. In previous researches, association of dietary intake and plasma levels of fatty acids with risk of pancreatic cancer was investigated. In this study we aimed to evaluate the correlation between dietary and plasma fatty acids in case and control groups. METHODS: From 50,045 adults between 40-75 years old participated in Golestan cohort study, fifty incident cases of PC were diagnosed and 150 controls matched by age, sex and residence place were randomly selected. Dietary intakes and plasma levels of fatty acids was evaluated by validated food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and Gas Chromatography - Flame Ionization Detector (GC-FID), respectively. Then, Spearman's correlation was used to measure the correlation between dietary and plasma levels of fatty acids in case and control groups. RESULTS: Among all the fatty acids, there was a significant association between plasma and dietary intake of a few fatty acids including trans fatty acids (TFA), polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), 22:6n-3 and 14:0 only in control group. Only total PUFA intake modified plasma level of some fatty acids in case group. There was no difference between association of desaturase enzymes and fatty acids in case and controls. CONCLUSIONS: Since, plasma levels of fatty acids might be influenced by recent diet, we did not find any specific differences between the associations of plasma levels of fatty acids with dietary intake of fats in case and control groups.

Diabetes Mellitus, Obesity, and Risk of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma: a Large Case-Control Study from Iran.

BACKGROUND Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a deadly, globally increasing cancer. The causes of PC are still insufficiently known, however smoking, diabetes mellitus (DM), and obesity have been identified as risk factors of PC, mostly in the developed countries. We evaluated these risk factors and their contribution to PC among an Iranian population. METHODS Cases and controls were selected from patients who were registered to a tertiary gastrointestinal diseases referral hospital in Tehran, Iran, from Jan 2012 to Jan 2018. Information on risk factors was collected by personal interview using a structured questionnaire. Logistic regression models were used to calculate adjusted odds ratios (AORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS We recruited 470 new patients with histopathological PC diagnosis and 526 sex and age-matched controls. Cigarette-smoking [AOR: 1.65 (1.15-2.38)], opium use [AOR: 1.58 (1.06-2.35)], DM [AOR: 1.99 (1.31-3.02)], and having a history of any cancer in a first-degree family member [AOR: 1.53 (1.14-2.05)] were associated with an increased risk of PC. We did not find an association between obesity [AOR: 0.99 (0.71-1.38)] and PC. Approximately 4.6%, 5.9%, 8.2%, and 10.9% risk of PC were related to cigarette-smoking, opium use, DM, and family history of any cancer, respectively. CONCLUSION This study supports that DM is associated with PC risk; however, similar to many studies in Asia, obesity is not associated with PC in Iranians. DM has the highest impact on PC development in Iranian women.

Dietary intake of fatty acids and risk of pancreatic cancer: Golestan cohort study.

BACKGROUND: As pancreatic cancer (PC) is a malignancy with poor prognosis, finding strategies for its prevention became a notable priority. Among all the factors influencing the risk of PC, dietary items especially fats are considered as the most modifiable risk factors.This study is designed to assess the associations of dietary intake of fatty acids with the risk of PC incidence. METHODS: A total of 50,045 adults between 40 and 75 years old participated in this cohort study in 2004-2008 and were followed up to the present. Intakes of fatty acids was evaluated by validated food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to estimate hazard ratio (HR) with 95 % confidence interval of differing levels of dietary intakes of fatty acids for incidence of PC. RESULTS: At the end of follow-up period, 76 cases of PC were identified and 46,904 participants without history of cancer, acute kidney disorders, fibrosis and cirrhosis were included in the study. Dietary total saturated fatty acids (SFAS) was associated with PC risk (HR = 1.05 (1.01-1.09), Ptrend=0.01), whereas dietary total monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAS) was inversely associated with the risk of PC (HR = 0.92 (0.86-0.99), Ptrend=0.04). Dietary total polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAS) did show a protective but not significant association with the risk of PC (HR = 0.91(0.84-1.00), Ptrend=0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The amount of total fat intake is not a risk factor for PC in our study and focusing on the intake of specific fatty acids becomes more striking. Unsaturated fatty acids including PUFAS and especially MUFAS are considered as protective dietary factors in PC prevention. In contrast, total SFAS is positively associated with the increased risk of PC. However, very long chain and odd-chain saturated fatty acids intake may be protective against PC.

Circulating plasma fatty acids and risk of pancreatic cancer: Results from the Golestan Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Pancreatic cancer (PC) with a dismal prognosis is considered as a fatal malignancy, attracting the scientists' attention to study its causes and pathogenesis pathways. Given the lack of enough evidence and conflicting findings about the association of PC risk with plasma fatty acids, we aimed to explore the associations of circulating plasma fatty acids with the risk of PC in a cohort study. METHODS: From about 50,000 subjects participated in this cohort study in 2004-2008, fifty incident cases of PC were recruited and 150 controls matched by age, sex and residence place (urban/rural) were randomly selected. The plasma fatty acids composition was measured by gas chromatography with Flame Ionization Detector (GC-FID) in plasma samples collected at the baseline of cohort study. Multivariable conditional logistic regression was used to estimate OR (with 95% CI) of PC risk associated with plasma levels of fatty acids considering known potential risk factors for PC. RESULTS: Our findings showed that total saturated fatty acids and total industrial trans fats were not associated with the risk of PC; whereas, statistically significant inverse associations were found between high plasma levels of total mono-unsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), omega-3 and ruminant trans fatty acids with the risk of PC [ORQ1-Q4 = 0.31 (0.11-0.89), OR Q2-Q1 = 0.30 (0.10-0.91) and ORQ2-Q1 = 0.15 (0.04-0.49), respectively]. Omega-6 fatty acids especially high plasma levels of Arachidonic acid was positively associated with the risk of PC [ORQ1-Q3 = 11.07 (3.50-35.02)]. CONCLUSION: Except for the plasma circulating whole fats, the levels of different classes of fats may significantly change pancreatic cancer susceptibility. Unsaturated fatty acids including omega-3-PUFA and MUFA are considered as protective biomarkers in PC prevention. On the contrary, omega-6-fatty acids are positively associated with the risk of PC.

Effects of phylloquinone supplementation on lipid profile in women with rheumatoid arthritis: a double blind placebo controlled study.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with an excess mortality from cardiovascular disease which is likely attributed to an atherogenic lipid profile. Among nutritional factors vitamin K has been recently focused as a pivotal nutrient in improvement of lipid related markers. Thus, this study was designed to determine the effects of vitamin K on lipid profile in this disease. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Fifty eight patients with definitive RA were participated in the present double blind placebo controlled study. They were randomly allocated into two groups to receive vitamin K1 as phylloquinone [10 mg/day] (n = 30) or placebo pills (n = 28), for eight weeks. In order to control the effects of probable confounders dietary intakes, anthropometric measurements including weight and height, clinical status using disease activity score-28 (DAS-28), physical activity and anxiety status were evaluated at baseline. Moreover, serum levels of lipid related markers including total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and triglyceride (TG) were measured at baseline and at the end of intervention. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between the two groups regarding any of the baseline characteristics. After adjusting for some relevant confounders, in comparison between two groups, we observed no significant changes in lipid related markers at the end of intervention. Also, there was no significant difference between before and after intervention values within groups (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Function of vitamin K1 in lipid profile modification remains still controversial. This study showed that vitamin K1 has no effect on lipid profile in women with rheumatoid arthritis. Further studies with a longer follow-up are required to determine the effects of vitamin K on atherogenic lipid profile.