Sugar-Sweetened Soft Drink Consumption and Risk of Pancreatic Cancer in Two Prospective Cohorts
- Eva S. Schernhammer1,7,
- Frank B. Hu1,2,3,
- Ed Giovannucci1,2,3,
- Dominique S. Michaud2,
- Graham A. Colditz1,3,4,5,
- Meir J. Stampfer1,2,3 and
- Charles S. Fuchs1,6
- 1Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School; Departments of 2Nutrition and 3Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health; 4Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention; 5Epidemiology Program, Dana-Faber/Harvard Cancer Center; and 6Department of Adult Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts and 7Ludwig Boltzmann-Institute for Applied Cancer Research, KFJ-Spital, Vienna, Austria
- Requests for reprints:
Eva S. Schernhammer, Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 181 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115. Phone: 617-525-4648; Fax: 617-525-2008. E-mail: eva.schernhammer{at}channing.harvard.edu
Abstract
Background: A history of diabetes mellitus and a diet high in glycemic load are both potential risk factors for pancreatic cancer. Sugar-sweetened soft drinks are a prevalent source of readily absorbable sugars and have been associated with an increased risk of obesity and diabetes. We investigated whether higher consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks increases the risk of pancreatic cancer.
Methods: We examined the relation between consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks and the development of pancreatic cancer in the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Among 88,794 women and 49,364 men without cancer at baseline, we documented 379 cases of pancreatic cancer during up to 20 years of follow-up. Soft drink consumption was first assessed at baseline (1980 for the women, 1986 for the men) and updated periodically thereafter.
Results: Compared with participants who largely abstained from sugar-sweetened soft drinks, those who consumed more than three sugar-sweetened soft drinks weekly experienced overall a multivariate relative risk (RR) of pancreatic cancer of 1.13 [95% confidence interval (95% CI), 0.81-1.58; P for trend = 0.47]. Women in the highest category of sugar-sweetened soft drink intake did experience a significant increase in risk (RR, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.02-2.41; P for trend = 0.05), whereas there was no association between sweetened soft drink intake and pancreatic cancer among men. Among women, the risk associated with higher sugar-sweetened soft drink was limited to those with elevated body mass index (>25 kg/m2; RR, 1.89; 95% CI, 0.96-3.72) or with low physical activity (RR, 2.02; 95% CI, 1.06-3.85). In contrast, consumption of diet soft drinks was not associated with an elevated pancreatic cancer risk in either cohort.
Conclusion: Although soft drink consumption did not influence pancreatic cancer risk among men, consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks may be associated with a modest but significant increase in risk among women who have an underlying degree of insulin resistance.
Footnotes
-
Grant support: National Cancer Institute grants CA/ES62984 and CA 87969 as well as CA 40356, CA 55075, and CA 86102.
-
The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
-
Note: G.A. Colditz is currently at the Channing Laboratory, 181 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115. F.B. Hu and E. Giovannucci are currently at the Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, 655 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115. D.S. Michaud and M.J. Stampfer are currently at the Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, 655 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115. C.S. Fuchs is currently at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 44 Binney Street, Boston, MA 02115.
-
- Accepted June 30, 2005.
- Received January 24, 2005.
- Revision received June 8, 2005.
