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Omega-3 fatty acid intake and decreased risk of skin cancer in organ transplant recipients

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Abstract

Purpose

Organ transplant recipients have over 100-fold higher risk of developing skin cancer than the general population and are in need of further preventive strategies. We assessed the possible preventive effects of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) intake from food on the two main skin cancers, squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and basal cell carcinoma (BCC) in kidney and liver transplant recipients.

Methods

Adult kidney or liver transplant recipients transplanted for at least 1 year and at high risk of skin cancer were recruited from the main transplant hospital in Queensland, 2012–2014 and followed until mid-2016. We estimated their dietary total long-chain omega-3 PUFAs and α-linolenic acid intakes at baseline using a food frequency questionnaire and ranked PUFA intakes as low, medium, or high. Relative risks (RRsadj) of skin cancer adjusted for confounding factors with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated.

Results

There were 449 transplant recipients (mean age, 55 years; 286 (64%) male). During follow-up, 149 (33%) patients developed SCC (median 2/person; range 1–40) and 134 (30%), BCC. Transplant recipients with high total long-chain omega-3 PUFA compared with low intakes showed substantially reduced SCC tumour risk (RRadj 0.33, 95% CI 0.18–0.60), and those with high α-linolenic acid intakes experienced significantly fewer BCCs (RRadj 0.40, 95% CI 0.22–0.74). No other significant associations were seen.

Conclusion

Among organ transplant recipients, relatively high intakes of long-chain omega-3 PUFAs and of α-linolenic acid may reduce risks of SCC and BCC, respectively.

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Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to confidentiality of clinical data belonging to the small numbers of hospital patients involved but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (Grants 552429 and 1073898) who had no involvement in any aspect of study design, conduct or writing of the manuscript. KM was supported by the NHMRC Program Grant (No. 552429 & 1073898) and NHMRC Centres of Research Excellence Grant (APP1040947). DW was supported by a Research Fellowship from the NHMRC (APP1155413; APP1058522).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Population Health Department, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, 300 Herston Road, Herston, QLD, Australia

    Kyoko Miura, Mandy Way, Zainab Jiyad, Elsemieke I. Plasmeijer, Lisa E. Ferguson, Marcia Davis, David C. Whiteman & Adèle C. Green

  2. School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Kyoko Miura

  3. School of Public Health and Social Work, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, QLD, Australia

    Kyoko Miura

  4. Statistics Unit, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Herston, QLD, Australia

    Mandy Way, Louise Marquart & Peter O’Rourke

  5. Institute of Cardiovascular and Cell Sciences (Dermatology Unit), St George’s University of London, London, UK

    Zainab Jiyad

  6. The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Elsemieke I. Plasmeijer

  7. Department of Nephrology, University of Queensland at Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Scott Campbell & Nicole Isbel

  8. Queensland Liver Transplant Service, University of Queensland, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Jonathan Fawcett

  9. Dermatology Research Centre, The University of Queensland, The University of Queensland Diamantina Institute, Woolloongabba, QLD, Australia

    H. Peter Soyer

  10. Department of Dermatology, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    H. Peter Soyer

  11. CRUK Manchester Institute and Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Adèle C. Green

Authors
  1. Kyoko Miura
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  2. Mandy Way
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  3. Zainab Jiyad
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  4. Louise Marquart
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  14. Adèle C. Green
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Contributions

The authors’ responsibilities were as follows: ACG, DW obtained funding. KM and ACG conceived the study. ZJ, EIP, SC, NI, JF, MD, HPS contributed to the data collection. MW and KM managed the data. KM analysed the data and interpreted the results with support from all authors. KM wrote the manuscript. All authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research and manuscript. All authors approved the final version submitted for publication.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kyoko Miura.

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The authors state no conflict of interest.

Ethical standards

Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the Ethics committee of the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute. All participants provided written informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

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Miura, K., Way, M., Jiyad, Z. et al. Omega-3 fatty acid intake and decreased risk of skin cancer in organ transplant recipients. Eur J Nutr 60, 1897–1905 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-020-02378-y

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