Associations between calcium and magnesium intake and the risk of incident gastric cancer, a prospective cohort analysis of the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study

AUTHORS

Shah SC , Dai Q , Zhu X , Peek RM , Smalley W , Roumie C , Shrubsole MJ , . International journal of cancer. 2019 08 31; ().

PMID: 31472027 [PubMed].

ABSTRACT

Gastric cancer remains a leading cause of cancer-related mortality. Identifying dietary and other modifiable disease determinants has important implications for risk attenuation in susceptible individuals. Our primary aim was to estimate the association between dietary and supplemental intakes of calcium and magnesium and the risk of incident gastric cancer. We conducted a prospective cohort analysis of the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study. We used Cox proportional hazard modeling to estimate the association between calcium and magnesium intakes with risk of incident gastric adenocarcinoma (GA) overall and by anatomic location, noncardia (NCGA) and cardia (CGA). A total of 536,403 respondents (59% males, 41% females) were included for analysis, among whom 1,518 incident GAs (797 NCGA, 721 CGA) occurred. Increasing calcium intake was associated with lower risk of GA overall (p-trend = 0.05), driven primarily by the association with NCGA, where above median calcium intakes were associated with a 23% reduction in risk compared to the lowest quartile (p-trend = 0.05). This magnitude of NCGA risk reduction was greater among non-white races and Hispanics (HR 0.51, 95% CI: 0.24-1.07, p-trend = 0.04), current/former smokers (HR 0.58, 95% CI: 0.41-0.81), obese individuals (HR 0.54,95% CI: 0.31-0.96), and those with high NCGA risk scores (HR 0.50, 95% CI: 0.31-0.80). Among men only, increasing magnesium intake was associated with 22-27% reduced risk of NCGA (p-trend = 0.05), while for the cohort, dietary magnesium intake in the highest versus lowest quartile was associated with a 34% reduced risk of NCGA (HR 0.66, 95% CI: 0.48-0.90). These findings have important implications for risk factor modification and personalized prevention. Future investigations are needed not only to confirm our results, but to define mechanisms underlying these associations. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.