Abstract
Purpose
Coffee and tea constituents have shown several anti-carcinogenic activities in cellular and animal studies, including against thyroid cancer (TC). However, epidemiological evidence is still limited and inconsistent. Therefore, we aimed to investigate this association in a large prospective study.
Methods
The study was conducted in the EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition) cohort, which included 476,108 adult men and women. Coffee and tea intakes were assessed through validated country-specific dietary questionnaires.
Results
During a mean follow-up of 14 years, 748 first incident differentiated TC cases (including 601 papillary and 109 follicular TC) were identified. Coffee consumption (per 100 mL/day) was not associated either with total differentiated TC risk (HRcalibrated 1.00, 95% CI 0.97–1.04) or with the risk of TC subtypes. Tea consumption (per 100 mL/day) was not associated with the risk of total differentiated TC (HRcalibrated 0.98, 95% CI 0.95–1.02) and papillary tumor (HRcalibrated 0.99, 95% CI 0.95–1.03), whereas an inverse association was found with follicular tumor risk (HRcalibrated 0.90, 95% CI 0.81–0.99), but this association was based on a sub-analysis with a small number of cancer cases.
Conclusions
In this large prospective study, coffee and tea consumptions were not associated with TC risk.
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Data Availability
For information on how to submit an application for gaining access to EPIC data and/or biospecimens, please follow the instructions at http://epic.iarc.fr/access/index.php.
Abbreviations
- 24-HDR:
-
24-h dietary recall
- BMI:
-
Body mass index
- CI:
-
Confidence interval
- EPIC:
-
European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition
- HR:
-
Hazard ratio
- IARC:
-
International Agency for Research on Cancer
- NOS:
-
Not otherwise specified
- TC:
-
Thyroid cancer
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Acknowledgements
We thank Mr. Bertrand Hémon for his valuable help with the EPIC database. The authors also thank all participants in the EPIC cohorts for their invaluable contribution to the study.
Funding
This study was supported by the Institute of Health Carlos III, Spain (CP15/00100), and cofounded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) “A way to build Europe”. The coordination of EPIC is financially supported by the European Commission (DG-SANCO) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The national cohorts are supported by Danish Cancer Society (Denmark); Ligue Contre le Cancer, Institut Gustave Roussy, Mutuelle Générale de l’Education Nationale, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) (France); German Cancer Aid, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (Germany); the Hellenic Health Foundation (Greece); Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro-AIRC-Italy and National Research Council (Italy); Dutch Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sports (VWS), Netherlands Cancer Registry (NKR), LK Research Funds, Dutch Prevention Funds, Dutch ZON (Zorg Onderzoek Nederland), World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), Statistics Netherlands (The Netherlands); Health Research Fund (FIS): PI13/00061 to Granada; PI13/01162 to EPIC-Murcia, Regional Governments of Andalucía, Asturias, Basque Country, Murcia and Navarra, AGAUR, Generalitat de Catalunya (exp. 2014 SGR 726), The Health Research Funds (RD12/0036/0018) (Spain); Swedish Cancer Society, Swedish Research Council and County Councils of Skåne and Västerbotten (Sweden); Cancer Research UK (14136 to EPIC-Norfolk; C570/A16491 and C8221/A19170 to EPIC-Oxford), Medical Research Council (1000143 to EPIC-Norfolk, MR/M012190/1 to EPIC-Oxford) (United Kingdom). RZ-R would like to thank the “Miguel Servet” program (CP15/00100) from the Institute of Health Carlos III (Spain) and the European Social Fund (ESF).
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RZ-R, SF, and SR designed the research; RZ-R, MAA, and VC performed the statistical analyses; RZ-R and MAA drafted the manuscript; SF, MA, JH, MS, KKT, EW, M-CB-R, GB, AS, AA, and SR contributed to the discussion. All authors reviewed, edited, and approved the final manuscript.
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Zamora-Ros R, Alghamdi MA, Cayssials V, Franceschi S, Almquist M, Hennings J, Sandström M, Tsilidis KK, Weiderpass E, Boutron-Ruault M-C, Hammer Bech B, Overvad K, Tjønneland A, Petersen KEN, Mancini FR, Mahamat-Saleh Y, Bonnet F, Kühn T, Fortner RT, Boeing H, Trichopoulou A, Bamia C, Martimianaki G, Masala G, Grioni S, Panico S, Tumino R, Fasanelli F, Skeie G, Braaten T, Lasheras C, Salamanca-Fernández E, Amiano P, Chirlaque M-D, Barricarte A, Manjer J, Wallström P, Bueno-de-Mesquita HB, Peeters PH, Khaw K-T, Wareham NJ, Schmidt JA, Aune D, Byrnes G, Scalbert A, Agudo A, and Rinaldi S have no conflict of interest.
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Zamora-Ros, R., Alghamdi, M.A., Cayssials, V. et al. Coffee and tea drinking in relation to the risk of differentiated thyroid carcinoma: results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study. Eur J Nutr 58, 3303–3312 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-018-1874-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-018-1874-z