Dietary Inflammatory Index and Renal Cell Carcinoma Risk in an Italian Case-Control Study

The Association between Dietary Inflammatory Potential and Urologic Cancers: A Meta-analysis

A meta-analysis published in 2018 indicated a significant association between the dietary inflammatory index (DII) and risk of urologic cancers (UC). The number of included studies was limited, and more research has been published on this topic since then. The current study aimed to find a more precise estimate of the association between dietary inflammatory potential and risk of UC by updating the previous meta-analysis. The PubMed and Embase databases were searched between January 2015 and April 2023 to identify eligible articles. Combined relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated by random-effects model to assess the association between dietary inflammatory potential and risk of UC by comparison of the highest versus the lowest category of the DII/empirical dietary inflammatory pattern (EDIP) or by using the continuous DII/EDIP score. The analysis, including 23 studies with 557,576 subjects, showed different results for UC. There was a significant association for prostate cancer among case-control studies (RR = 1.75, 95% CI: 1.34-2.28), whereas among cohort studies a null association was found (RR = 1.02, 95% CI: 0.96-1.08). For bladder cancer, a nonsignificant association was observed in both case-control (RR = 1.59, 95% CI: 0.95-2.64) and cohort studies (RR = 1.03, 95% CI: 0.86-1.24). Pooled RR from 3 case-control studies displayed a statistically significant association between the DII and risk of kidney cancer (RR = 1.27, 95% CI: 1.03-1.56). Although DII was positively associated with all types of UC, no association was found for EDIP. The present meta-analysis confirmed that an inflammatory diet has a direct effect on the development of prostate cancer and kidney cancer. Large-scale studies are needed to demonstrate the association between dietary inflammatory potential and risk of UC and provide effective nutritional advice for UC prevention. PROTOCOL REGISTRATION: The protocol was registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (CRD42023391204).

Associations of dietary patterns with kidney cancer risk, kidney cancer-specific mortality and all-cause mortality among postmenopausal women

BACKGROUND

The empirical dietary index for hyperinsulinemia (EDIH) and empirical dietary inflammatory pattern (EDIP) are novel measures of dietary quality associated with insulin hypersecretion or chronic inflammation, respectively, whereas the Healthy Eating Index (HEI-2015) measures adherence to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA). We evaluated associations of EDIH, EDIP and HEI-2015 on the risk of both kidney cancer development and mortality.

METHODS

We calculated the dietary scores from baseline food frequency questionnaires among 115,830 participants aged 50-79 years in the Women's Health Initiative. Multivariable-adjusted Cox regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) for kidney cancer risk, kidney cancer-specific mortality and all-cause mortality, per 1-standard deviation increment in dietary pattern scores.

RESULTS

Higher EDIH was associated with greater risk of kidney cancer development [HR, 1.12; 95%CI, (1.01,1.23)], kidney cancer-specific death [1.22(0.99,1.48)], and all-cause mortality, [1.05(1.02,1.08)]. Higher HEI-2015 was associated with lower risk of kidney cancer development, [0.85(0.77, 0.94)], kidney cancer-specific death, [0.84(0.69,1.03)] and all-cause mortality, [0.97(0.95,1.00)]. However, EDIP was not significantly associated with outcomes. Associations did not differ by BMI categories.

CONCLUSIONS

Low-insulinemic dietary patterns and higher quality diets, are worthy of testing in dietary pattern intervention trials for kidney cancer prevention and improved survivorship.

Dietary inflammatory index and renal cancer risk: a prospective study

Background: High dietary inflammatory index (DII®) scores, representing pro-inflammatory diets, have been associated with increased risks for numerous cancers. However, the evidence for renal cancer is limited. In the present study, we aimed to assess the association between DII and renal cancer risk in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) cohort. Methods: Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using a Cox proportional hazards model with adjustment for various potential confounders. Results: After a median 12.2 years of follow-up, this study recorded 443 renal cancer cases among 101 190 individuals. The DII score was positively associated with renal cancer risk in multivariable analyses. The HR in the highest DII tertile compared to the lowest tertile was 1.38 (95% CI 1.03-1.84). This was also true when DII was analyzed as a continuous variable. The HR of one-unit increment in DII for renal cancer risk was 1.07 (95% CI 1.01-1.12). Conclusion: In this large American cohort, pro-inflammatory diet, as estimated by higher DII scores, was significantly associated with a greater risk of renal cancer. Future large prospective studies are warranted to verify these preliminary findings.

Kidney Cancer Integrative Oncology: Possible Options for Care

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

This study aims to review how complementary and integrative medicine (CIM), defined as therapies utilizing nutrition, physical activity, herbs, supplements, mind-body therapies, homeopathy, and other non-traditional therapies, can address the prevention, treatment, side effects, and recurrence of kidney cancer. This review discusses advances and discoveries in research, gaps in research, current debates on the subject, and directions for future research. We queried Ovid MEDLINE and PubMed databases using the search terms kidney cancer, integrative medicine, integrative oncology, nutrition, supplements, treatment, prevention, and therapy. Searches were limited to integrative medicine and integrative oncology. We reviewed CIM therapies related to prevention, treatment, side effect mitigation, and recurrence of kidney cancers.

RECENT FINDINGS

Search results yielded 211 studies, of which 87 were relevant to this review. Studies related to CIM and kidney cancer were clustered into themes, including nutrition, physical activity, supplements, mind-body therapies, and alternative therapies. This review provides a foundation for utilizing the principles of integrative medicine in the prevention of and care for patients with kidney cancer and the need for further focused research on the effectiveness of CIM in kidney cancers.

Role of dietary patterns and acculturation in cancer risk and mortality among postmenopausal Hispanic women: results from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI)

Aim

To investigate the association between dietary patterns and total and obesity-related cancers risk. Additionally, to examine if acculturation modifies this relationship.

Subject and Methods

Dietary intake of postmenopausal Hispanic women (N=5,482) enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative was estimated from a Food Frequency Questionnaire and used to calculate dietary pattern scores; Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015), Mexican Diet (MexD) score, alternate Mediterranean Diet Score (aMED), and the energy adjusted-Dietary Inflammatory Index (E-DII™). Associations were evaluated using Cox proportional hazards regression models.

Results

631 cancers and 396 obesity-related cancers were diagnosed over a mean-follow up of 12 years. Across dietary scores, there were no significant associations with cancer risk or mortality. Trend analysis suggest a potentially lower risk for total cancer related to the highest MexD score (HR 0.68, 95% CI 0.45-1.04, P-trend=0.03), and lower risk for obesity-related cancer mortality related to the highest score category for MexD (HR 0.65, 95% CI 0.37-1.16, P-trend=0.02), and aMED (HR 0.87, 95% CI 0.45-1.67, P-trend=0.04). Further analysis suggests less acculturated women with higher MexD scores had 56% lower risk for any cancer (HR 0.44, 95% CI 0.22-0.88, P-trend=0.03) and 83% lower risk for cancer mortality (HR 0.17, 95% CI 0.04-0.76, P-trend=0.01) compared to more acculturated Hispanic women.

Conclusions

Dietary patterns were not associated with cancer risk and mortality in postmenopausal Hispanic women. Less-acculturated, Spanish-preferred speakers, who reported consuming a more traditional Mexican diet may experience a lower risk for cancer and cancer mortality.

Phytochemicals in Gynecological Cancer Prevention

Gynecological cancer confers an enormous burden among women worldwide. Accumulating evidence points to the role of phytochemicals in preventing cervical, endometrial, and ovarian cancer. Experimental studies emphasize the chemopreventive and therapeutic potential of plant-derived substances by inhibiting the early stages of carcinogenesis or improving the efficacy of traditional chemotherapeutic agents. Moreover, a number of epidemiological studies have investigated associations between a plant-based diet and cancer risk. This literature review summarizes the current knowledge on the phytochemicals with proven antitumor activity, emphasizing their effectiveness and mechanism of action in gynecological cancer.

Dietary Inflammatory Index and Non-Communicable Disease Risk: A Narrative Review

There are over 1,000,000 publications on diet and health and over 480,000 references on inflammation in the National Library of Medicine database. In addition, there have now been over 30,000 peer-reviewed articles published on the relationship between diet, inflammation, and health outcomes. Based on this voluminous literature, it is now recognized that low-grade, chronic systemic inflammation is associated with most non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, cancers, respiratory and musculoskeletal disorders, as well as impaired neurodevelopment and adverse mental health outcomes. Dietary components modulate inflammatory status. In recent years, the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII®), a literature-derived dietary index, was developed to characterize the inflammatory potential of habitual diet. Subsequently, a large and rapidly growing body of research investigating associations between dietary inflammatory potential, determined by the DII, and risk of a wide range of NCDs has emerged. In this narrative review, we examine the current state of the science regarding relationships between the DII and cancer, cardiometabolic, respiratory and musculoskeletal diseases, neurodevelopment, and adverse mental health outcomes. We synthesize the findings from recent studies, discuss potential underlying mechanisms, and look to the future regarding novel applications of the adult and children's DII (C-DII) scores and new avenues of investigation in this field of nutritional research.

Perspective: The Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII)-Lessons Learned, Improvements Made, and Future Directions

The literature on the role of inflammation in health has grown exponentially over the past several decades. Paralleling this growth has been an equally intense focus on the role of diet in modulating inflammation, with a doubling in the size of the literature approximately every 4 y. The Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) was developed to provide a quantitative means for assessing the role of diet in relation to health outcomes ranging from blood concentrations of inflammatory cytokines to chronic diseases. Based on literature from a variety of different study designs ranging from cell culture to observational and experimental studies in humans, the DII was designed to be universally applicable across all human studies with adequate dietary assessment. Over the past 4 y, the DII has been used in >200 studies and forms the basis for 12 meta-analyses. In the process of conducting this work, lessons were learned with regard to methodologic issues related to total energy and nutrient intake and energy and nutrient densities. Accordingly, refinements to the original algorithm have been made. In this article we discuss these improvements and observations that we made with regard to misuse and misinterpretation of the DII and provide suggestions for future developments.

Meta-analysis of the association between the inflammatory potential of diet and urologic cancer risk

BACKGROUND

The inflammatory potential of diet has been shown to have an association with the risk of several cancer types, but the evidence is inconsistent regarding the related risk of urologic cancer (UC). Therefore, we conducted the present meta-analysis to investigate the association between the inflammatory potential of diet and UC.

METHODS

PubMed, Embase and Web of Science were searched up to July 31, 2018. Two reviewers independently selected the studies and extracted the data. The pooled risk ratio (RR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated using the Stata12.0 software package.

RESULTS

Nine case-control studies and three cohort studies including 83,197 subjects met the inclusion criteria. The overall meta-analysis results showed that individuals with the highest category of DII (dietary inflammatory index) were associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer (RR = 1.62, 95% CI: 1.30-2.02); subgroup analysis showed consistent results. For kidney and bladder cancer, significant positive associations were found in individuals with the highest category of DII score; however, no significant association was found between DII and the risk of urothelial cell carcinoma (UCC).

CONCLUSION

Available data suggest that more pro-inflammatory diets are associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer, kidney cancer and bladder cancer. However, further well designed large-scaled cohort studies are warranted to provide more conclusive evidence.

Dietary Inflammatory Index and Site-Specific Cancer Risk: A Systematic Review and Dose-Response Meta-Analysis

Existing evidence suggests a link between the inflammatory potential of diet and risk of cancer. This study aimed to test the linear and potential nonlinear dose-response associations of the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII), as being representative of inflammatory features of the diet, and site-specific cancer risk. A systematic search was conducted with the use of PubMed and Scopus from 2014 to November 2017. Prospective cohort or case-control studies reporting the risk estimates of any cancer type for ≥3 categories of the DII were selected. Studies that reported the association between continuous DII score and cancer risk were also included. Pooled RRs were calculated by using a random-effects model. Eleven prospective cohort studies (total n = 1,187,474) with 28,614 incident cases and 29 case-control studies with 19,718 cases and 33,229 controls were identified. The pooled RRs for a 1-unit increment in the DII were as follows: colorectal cancer, 1.06 (95% CI: 1.04, 1.08; I2 = 72.5%; n = 9); breast cancer, 1.03 (95% CI: 1.00, 1.07; I2 = 84.0%; n = 7); prostate cancer, 1.06 (95% CI: 0.97, 1.15; I2 = 56.2%; n = 6); pancreatic cancer, 1.16 (95% CI: 1.05, 1.28; I2 = 61.6%; n = 2); ovarian cancer, 1.08 (95% CI: 1.03, 1.13; I2 = 0%; n = 2); esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, 1.24 (95% CI: 1.10, 1.38; I2 = 64.3%; n = 2); renal cell carcinoma, 1.08 (95% CI: 1.02, 1.13; I2 = 0%; n = 2); and esophageal adenocarcinoma, 1.26 (95% CI: 1.13, 1.39; I2 = 0%; n = 2). A nonlinear dose-response meta-analysis showed that, after a somewhat unchanged risk within initial scores of the DII, the risk of colorectal cancer increased linearly with increasing DII score. In the analyses of breast and prostate cancers, the risk increased with a very slight trend with increasing DII score. In conclusion, the results showed that dietary habits with high inflammatory features might increase the risk of site-specific cancers.

Dose-response relation between dietary inflammatory index and human cancer risk: evidence from 44 epidemiologic studies involving 1,082,092 participants

Background

A newly developed dietary inflammatory index (DII) to evaluate the inflammatory potential of diets was published recently. Many studies have investigated the link between diet-related inflammation and human cancer risk, but the results remain controversial.

Objective

We sought to determine the dose-response relation between DII and human cancer risk based on published epidemiologic literature.

Design

To summarize evidence, we performed a dose-response meta-analysis to investigate the association between DII and cancer incidence. We systematically searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane library up to 5 November 2017. After data extraction, pooled RRs were calculated and dose-response analyses were performed using a restricted cubic spline model with 4 knots. Subgroup analyses, sensitivity analyses, and tests for publication bias were also performed.

Results

In all, 44 high-quality studies with 1,082,092 participants were included. The results showed that an elevated DII (continuous-RR: 1.13; 95% CI: 1.09, 1.16; category DIIhighest vs lowest-RR: 1.58; 95% CI: 1.45, 1.72) independently indicated higher cancer risk except for lung cancer and Australian studies. A linear dose-response relation between DII and overall cancer risk was found, with an 8.3% increase in the risk of cancer per DII score. The pooled RR of DII and cancer risk was 1.86 (95% CI: 1.63, 2.13) from 30 case-control studies but was lower in 14 prospective cohorts (RR: 1.29; 95% CI: 1.19, 1.40). The sensitivity analysis and Egger's test supported the main results.

Conclusions

Our analysis indicated that higher DII is significantly correlated with cancer risk. More prospective studies with large sample sizes, involving more ethnic groups and different cancer types, are required in the future. This review was registered with PROSPERO as CRD42017077075.