Inflammatory potential of diet may not exacerbate bladder cancer risk

There appears to be no link between the inflammatory potential of diets and the risk of developing bladder cancer, a recent study has found.

The researchers included 101,721 patients, who were followed for a median of 12.5 years, over which time 776 incident cases of bladder cancer were reported. Diet was assessed using a self-reported food frequency questionnaire, and the energy-adjusted diet inflammatory index (E-DII) was used to evaluate for inflammatory potential.

The mean E-DII score in men and women was –2.8±2.5 and –4.2±2.1, respectively. The difference was statistically significant (p<0.001), indicating that men tended to keep a more inflammatory diet. Because of this, analyses were performed separately.

Multivariable-adjusted analysis showed that E-DII, as a categorical variable, did not correlate significantly with bladder cancer risk. Men (hazard ratio [HR], 0.90, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.70–1.17) and women (HR, 1.22, 95 percent CI, 0.72–2.06) in the highest vs lowest E-DII quintile did not show a statistically different risk estimate.

The same remained true when E-DII was taken as a continuous variable. Each unit increment in E-DII score had no significant effect on bladder cancer risk in both men (HR, 0.99, 95 percent CI, 0.96–1.02) and women (HR, 1.01, 95 percent CI, 0.94–1.10).

“Additional work in other contexts could help reconcile equivocal results across studies examining the relationship between E-DII/DII and bladder cancer,” the researchers said.