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Association between dietary sodium, potassium intake and lung cancer risk: evidence from the prostate, lung, colorectal and ovarian cancer screening trial and the Women's Health Initiative.

About this Publication
Title
Association between dietary sodium, potassium intake and lung cancer risk: evidence from the prostate, lung, colorectal and ovarian cancer screening trial and the Women's Health Initiative.
Pubmed ID
33569292 (View this publication on the PubMed website)
Digital Object Identifier
Publication
Transl Lung Cancer Res. 2021 Jan; Volume 10 (Issue 1): Pages 45-56
Authors
You D, Zhang M, He W, Wang D, Yu Y, Yu Z, Lange T, Yang S, Wei Y, Ma H, Hu Z, Shen H, Chen F, Zhao Y
Affiliations
  • Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
  • Zhengzhou Central Hospital Affiliated Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
  • Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Kangda College of Nanjing Medical University, Lianyungang, China.
  • Section of Biostatistics, Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1353, Copenhagen, Denmark.
  • Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
Abstract

BACKGROUND: Epidemiological studies have reported that dietary mineral intake plays an important role on lung cancer risk, but the association of sodium, potassium intake is still unclear.

METHODS: We determined the association between dietary sodium, potassium intake and lung cancer risk based on the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) cancer screening trial and the Women's Health Initiative (WHI). Totally 165,409 participants who completed the baseline questionnaire (BQ) and diet history questionnaire (DHQ) were included into the analytical dataset, including 92,984 (44,959 men and 48,025 women) from the PLCO trial and 72,425 (women only) from the WHI cohort. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression was used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of incident lung cancer associated with dietary potassium and sodium intake. The dose-response relationship was also described using the spline smoothed curve after adjusting covariates.

RESULTS: After the median follow-up of 8.55 and 18.56 years, 1,278 and 1,631 new cases of lung cancer were identified in the PLCO trial and WHI cohort, respectively. Intake of sodium was significantly associated with the incidence of lung cancer in the PLCO trial after multivariate adjustment for men (HR: 1.19, 95% CI: 1.05-1.35; P for linear trend =0.044). There was a suggestion that lung cancer risk had a quadratic curve correlation with the increase of potassium intake for women (third vs. lowest quintile: HR: 0.72, 95% CI: 0.54-0.96; P for quadratic trend =0.042). The similar results showing an inverse association between potassium intake and lung cancer risk were also observed in the WHI cohort for women (highest vs. lowest quintile: HR: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.70-0.97; P for linear trend =0.009).

CONCLUSIONS: Appropriate intake of potassium has a protective effect against lung cancer, while high consumption of sodium is associated with an increased risk of lung cancer.

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