Dietary intake of nutrients involved in folate-mediated one-carbon metabolism and risk for endometrial cancer

Abstract

Background: Studies disagree as to whether intakes of folate-mediated one-carbon metabolism nutrients are associated with endometrial cancer. Methods: Using data from the large, prospective NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study, we used Cox proportional hazards models to evaluate endometrial cancer risk associated with calorie-adjusted dietary intake of several B vitamins and methionine. All models accounted for age, race, body mass index (BMI), smoking, oral-contraceptive use, menopausal hormone therapy use and caloric intake. We estimated associations by time from baseline (3 or >3 years) and stratified models by BMI (<25 or 25 kg/m2). During 16 years of follow-up, we identified 2329 endometrial cancer cases among 114 414 participants. Results: After adjustment for confounding, we observed increased risk for endometrial cancer with greater consumption of dietary total folate, natural folate, B2, B6 and B12 [hazard ratios (HRs) ranging from 1.14 to 1.24 for the highest quintile (Q5) vs the lowest (Q1)]. Higher intakes of total folate, natural folate, B6 and B12 continued to be associated with increased risk when limiting follow-up to >3 years from baseline. We observed risks for the highest intakes of B2 [Q5 vs Q1: HR 1.27 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07-1.50], B12 (Q5 vs Q1: HR 1.38 CI 1.17-1.63) and methionine (Q5 vs Q1: HR 1.26 CI 1.07-1.48) among women who were overweight/obese, but not among normal/underweight women. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that one-carbon metabolism plays a role in endometrial carcinogenesis and exploration of this role in tissue and cellular biology studies is warranted.