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The Mediterranean dietary pattern is believed to protect against cancer, although evidence from cohort studies that have examined particular cancer sites is limited.
Dr Genevieve Buckland and colleagues explored the association between adherence to a relative Mediterranean diet, and incident gastric adenocarcinoma within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition study.
The team evaluated 485,044 subjects aged 35 to 70 years from 10 European countries.
At recruitment, dietary and lifestyle information was collected.
An 18-unit relative Mediterranean diet score, incorporating 9 key components of the Mediterranean diet, was used to estimate relative Mediterranean diet adherence.
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| 1-unit increases in diet scores decreased gastric cancer risk by 5% |
| American Journal of Clinical Nutrition |
The team investigated the association between relative Mediterranean diet and gastric adenocarcinoma with respect to anatomic location and histologic types.
A calibration study in a subsample was used to control for dietary measurement error.
The researchers found that after a mean follow-up of 9 years, 449 validated incident gastric adenocarcinoma cases were identified and used in the analysis.
After stratification by center and age and adjustment for recognized cancer risk factors, high compared with low relative Mediterranean diet adherence was associated with a significant reduction in gastric adenocarcinoma risk.
The research team observed that a 1-unit increase in the relative Mediterranean diet score was associated with a decreased risk of gastric adenocarcinoma of 5%.
The team found no evidence of heterogeneity between different anatomic locations or histologic types.
The calibrated results showed similar trends.
Dr Buckland's team concluded, “Greater adherence to an relative Mediterranean diet is associated with a significant reduction in the risk of incident gastric adenocarcinoma.”
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