Prospective Study of Dietary Phytoestrogen Intake and the Risk of Colorectal Cancer

ABSTRACT

Dietary phytoestrogen intake has been inversely associated with the risk of prostate and breast cancer and might also affect the risk of colorectal cancer. We evaluated the associations between dietary lignan intake, dietary isoflavonoid intake, dietary coumestrol intake, and dietary enterolignans and equol intake, and risk of colorectal cancer. Data from the Women's Lifestyle and Health (WLH) Cohort study was used. The WLH study is a prospective population-based cohort study including 48,268 Swedish women aged 30–49 years at the time of enrolment in 1991–92. Follow-up for colorectal cancer incidence, death, and emigration until the end of 2010 was performed through record linkage to the Swedish Cancer Registry and Total Population Register. During follow-up 206 incident colorectal cancer cases were identified. Cox proportional hazards models were fitted to estimate adjusted risk ratios with 95% confidence intervals. We found no statistically significant association between the intake of dietary lignans, dietary isoflavonoids, coumestrol, or enterolignans and equol, and risk of colorectal cancer. We found no association between dietary phytoestrogen intake and the risk of colorectal cancer. However, since the number of cancer cases was small, our results need to be confirmed. Future studies should investigate colon and rectal cancer separately.

Acknowledgments

This work was carried out at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. This work was supported by the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish Cancer Society. The authors would like to thank all study subjects in the WLH study. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.