Sweetened beverages are associated with a higher risk of differentiated thyroid cancer in the EPIC cohort: a dietary pattern approach.

Background: Dietary pattern analysis has gained particular interest, because it reflects the complexity of dietary intake. The aim of this study was to explore the associations between a posteriori dietary patterns, derived using a data-driven approach, and the risk of differentiated thyroid cancer (TC) in Europe.

Methods: This investigation included 450,064 adults from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort. Dietary intake was assessed using validated country-specific dietary questionnaires. A posteriori dietary patterns were computed using principal component analyses. Cox regression was used to calculate multivariable adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

Results: After a mean follow-up time of 14 years, 712 first differentiated TCs were diagnosed. In the fully adjusted model, a dietary pattern characterized by alcohol consumption (basically beer and wine) was negatively associated with differentiated TC risk (HR = 0.75; 95% CI:0.60-0.94, P-trend = 0.005), while a dietary pattern rich in sweetened beverages was positively associated with differentiated TC risk (HR = 1.26; 95% CI:0.99-1.61; P-trend = 0.07). The remaining 8 dietary patterns were not related to differentiated TC risk. The intake of sweetened beverages was positively associated with differentiated TC risk (HR = 1.05; 95% CI:1.00-1.11), especially with papillary TC risk (HR = 1.07; 95% CI:1.01-1.13). Similar results were observed with sugary and artificially sweetened beverages.

Conclusions: The investigation of dietary patterns detected that the consumption of sweetened beverages was associated with a higher risk of differentiated thyroid cancer. Our results are in line with the general dietary recommendations of reducing the consumption of sweetened beverages.