The relationships between glycemic index and glycemic load of diets and nutritional status and antioxidant/oxidant status in the serum of patients with lung cancer.

Background: A low glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load (GL) of diets as well as proper nutritional status may partially slow down depletion in antioxidant capacity, and may therefore have an impact on antioxidant/ oxidant status in lung cancer patients. However, no studies concerning these associations had previously been conducted.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the association between GI or GL and nutritional status and antioxidant/oxidant status in lung cancer patients.

Material And Methods: The study was conducted among 180 lung cancer patients (82 women and 98 men) and 171 control subjects (78 women and 93 men). Exclusion criteria for the control subjects included cancers, pro-inflammatory conditions, brain diseases, and psychiatric disorders. All participants were evaluated in terms of their systemic antioxidant/oxidant status, nutritional status (anthropometric parameters), dietary GI and GL and parameters related to circulating glucose: fasting glucose, insulin level and homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR).

Results: In women who were lung cancer-positive, associations were observed between total antioxidant status (TAS) and parameters of nutritional status, and between oxidative stress index (OSI) and fasting glucose. In men with lung cancer, we found a positive correlation between total oxidant status (TOS) and GI. In the control group of women, TAS positively correlated with anthropometric parameters, but negatively with dietary fiber and total carbohydrate content. Additionally, TOS and OSI negatively correlated with parameters related to body weight and positively with insulin. In control men, we observed significant negative correlations between parameters related to fasting glucose and TAS and positive ones with TOS and OSI.

Conclusions: The results show that in lung cancer oxidative stress is related to GI, while TAS is related to nutritional status. Further investigations performed on a larger cohort are required to better clarify the observed relationships as well as to explain the potential mechanisms involved.