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Healthy lifestyle and the risk of pancreatic cancer in the EPIC study

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Abstract

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a highly fatal cancer with currently limited opportunities for early detection and effective treatment. Modifiable factors may offer pathways for primary prevention. In this study, the association between the Healthy Lifestyle Index (HLI) and PC risk was examined. Within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition cohort, 1113 incident PC (57% women) were diagnosed from 400,577 participants followed-up for 15 years (median). HLI scores combined smoking, alcohol intake, dietary exposure, physical activity and, in turn, overall and central adiposity using BMI (HLIBMI) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR, HLIWHR), respectively. High values of HLI indicate adherence to healthy behaviors. Cox proportional hazard models with age as primary time variable were used to estimate PC hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Sensitivity analyses were performed by excluding, in turn, each factor from the HLI score. Population attributable fractions (PAF) were estimated assuming participants’ shift to healthier lifestyles. The HRs for a one-standard deviation increment of HLIBMI and HLIWHR were 0.84 (95% CI: 0.79, 0.89; ptrend = 4.3e−09) and 0.77 (0.72, 0.82; ptrend = 1.7e−15), respectively. Exclusions of smoking from HLIWHR resulted in HRs of 0.88 (0.82, 0.94; ptrend = 4.9e−04). The overall PAF estimate was 19% (95% CI: 11%, 26%), and 14% (6%, 21%) when smoking was removed from the score. Adherence to a healthy lifestyle was inversely associated with PC risk, beyond the beneficial role of smoking avoidance. Public health measures targeting compliance with healthy lifestyles may have an impact on PC incidence.

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Data Availability

Information to submit an application to have access to EPIC data and/or biospecimens can be found at http://epic.iarc.fr/access/index.ph.

Abbreviations

BMI:

Body Mass Index

CI:

Confidence interval

EPIC:

European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition

HR:

Hazard ratio

PC:

Pancreatic cancer

PAF:

Population attributable fraction

WHR:

Waist-to-hip ratio

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Acknowledgements

We thank Carine Biessy and Bertrand Hemon for their technical support and contribution to this work. We are also grateful to all the EPIC participants who have been part of the project and to the many other members of the study teams who have enabled this research.

Funding

This work was supported by the Direction Générale de la Santé (French Ministry of Health) (Grant GR-IARC-2003-09-12-01), by the European Commission (Directorate General for Health and Consumer Affairs) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The national cohorts are supported by the Danish Cancer Society (Denmark); the Ligue Contre le Cancer, the Institut Gustave Roussy, the Mutuelle Générale de l’Education Nationale and the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (France); the Deutsche Krebshilfe, the Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany); the Hellenic Health Foundation, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the Hellenic Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity (Greece); the Italian Association for Research on Cancer and the National Research Council (Italy); the Dutch Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sports, the Netherlands Cancer Registry, LK Research Funds, Dutch Prevention Funds, the Dutch Zorg Onderzoek Nederland, the World Cancer Research Fund and Statistics Netherlands (The Netherlands); the Health Research Fund, Regional Governments of Andalucýa, Asturias, Basque Country, Murcia (Project 6236) and Navarra, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Redes de Investigacion Cooperativa (RD06/0020) (Spain); the Swedish Cancer Society, the Swedish Scientific Council and the Regional Government of Skåne (Sweden); Cancer Research UK (C864/A14136 to EPIC-Norfolk; C570/A16491 and C8221/A19170 to EPIC-Oxford), Medical Research Council (MR/N003284/1 and MC-UU_12015/1 to EPIC-Norfolk, MR/M012190/1 to EPIC-Oxford) (United Kingdom), the Stroke Association, the British Heart Foundation, the Department of Health, the Food Standards Agency, and the Wellcome Trust (UK). This work was part of Sabine Naudin’s PhD at Claude Bernard Lyon I University (France), funded by Région Auvergne Rhône-Alpes, ADR 2016 (France).

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Naudin, S., Viallon, V., Hashim, D. et al. Healthy lifestyle and the risk of pancreatic cancer in the EPIC study. Eur J Epidemiol 35, 975–986 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-019-00559-6

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