Dietary choline lowers risk of colorectal cancer

Intake of dietary choline, but not sphingomyelin (SM) choline moiety, appears to reduce the risk of developing colorectal cancer, suggests a recent study.

Choline was inversely associated with the risk of CRC (odds ratio [OR] for the highest vs the lowest tertile, 0.85, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.73‒0.99), with a significant trend in risk. For every increase of one standard deviation of energy-adjusted choline intake, the OR was 0.93 (95 percent CI, 0.88‒0.98). Such association was consistent in colon and rectal cancer, as well as across colon subsites.

On the other hand, SM choline moiety showed no significant association with CRC risk (OR for the highest vs the lowest tertile, 0.96, 95 percent CI, 0.84‒1.11).

This multicentre case-control study was conducted between 1992 and 1996 in Italy, involving a total of 6,107 participants, of whom 1,225 had colon cancer, 728 had rectal cancer, and 4,154 were hospital-based controls.

The authors applied data on the composition of foods in terms of SM choline moiety and choline intake on dietary information obtained using a validated food-frequency questionnaire. They estimated ORs for energy-adjusted tertiles of SM choline moiety and choline using logistic regression models, adjusted for age, sex, centre, education, alcohol intake, body mass index, family history of CRC, and physical activity.

“Phospholipids are possible favourable agents for CRC,” the authors said. “Choline has been inversely related to CRC risk, but findings are inconsistent.”