Potato Consumption and Risk of Colorectal Cancer in the Norwegian Women and Cancer Cohort

ABSTRACT

Potatoes are the fourth most plentiful food crop in the world, yet the scientific literature on the health effects of potato consumption is scarce. This study aimed to investigate the association between potato consumption and the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) among 79,778 women aged 41–70, in the Norwegian Women and Cancer study. Information on diet, lifestyle, and health was collected by questionnaire. CRC cases (n  =  912) were identified through registry linkage. Adjusted Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate the association between potato consumption and the risk of CRC. Results showed that high potato consumption was associated with a higher risk of CRC (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.32, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.10, 1.60 for ≥3 potatoes per day versus 0–7 potatoes per week). The same association was found for rectal cancer (HR: 1.68, 95% CI: 1.19, 2.36), and same tendencies were found for colon cancer (HR: 1.20, 95% CI: 0.96, 1.50). When stratified by body mass index (BMI) (<25 and ≥25 kg/m²), significant associations were found with BMI <25 kg/m² for CRC (HR: 1.48, 95% CI: 1.15, 1.89) and rectal cancer (HR: 1.95, 95% CI: 1.25, 3.06). No significant interaction between potato consumption and BMI (P  =  0.49) was found.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Nicolle Mode for assistance with data preparation. In addition, the authors would like to thank Ms. Genevieve Nicolas and Dr. Nadia Slimani and the team at Dietary Exposure Assessment Group, IARC, for assistance with, and access to data regarding preparation methods of potatoes from the EPIC Calibration study. The Regional Ethical Committee has approved the NOWAC study. LAA, TB, AO, EL, and GS designed research; LAA, GS and AO wrote the paper; LAA analyzed the data and had primary responsibility for final content; TB supervised the statistical analyses, did data preparation, and commented on the manuscript; AO supervised and commented on the analysis and manuscript; EL, the Principal Investigator of the NOWAC study, commented on the manuscript and analysis; GS supervised the statistical analysis, commented and supervised the drafting of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the Norwegian ExtraFoundation for Health and Rehabilitation through EXTRA funds. The Norwegian ExtraFoundation for Health and Rehabilitation had no role in the design, analysis or writing of this article.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Some of the data in this article are from the Cancer Registry of Norway. The Cancer Registry of Norway is not responsible for the analysis or interpretation of the data presented.