Despite development in cancer treatment and prevention options during the past few years, cancer of the pancreas remains a diagnosis associated with poor prognosis and limited options for prevention. Diet has proven to be an important risk factor for development of many types of cancer, particularly for cancers of the digestive system. Still, evidence regarding its relation to pancreatic cancer remains ambiguous. To investigate the relationship between diet and pancreatic cancer, an analysis of dietary patterns in participants from the Norwegian Women and Cancer Study (n = 89,156; 305 pancreatic cancer cases) was performed. Cox regression analysis was used for studying possible associations between dietary patterns, derived from principal component analysis, and pancreatic cancer incidence. The four most prominent dietary patterns were identified and described: European pattern, animal food consumers' dietary pattern, traditional Norwegian pattern, and alcohol-abstaining dietary pattern. In analysis without adjustment for confounders, being in the highest tertile of the abstaining dietary pattern was associated with lower risk of pancreatic cancer in comparison to the lowest tertile (hazard ratios [HR]: 0.66, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.49-0.89). After additional adjustment for height and smoking status, no dietary pattern was associated with increased pancreatic cancer risk, nor was there any difference in effect estimates between strata of smokers and non-smokers. The results of our current analysis do not support the role of major dietary patterns in the development of pancreatic cancer.

Centre for Public Health Promotion National Institute of Public Health Prague Czech Republic

Department of Community Medicine Faculty of Health Sciences UiT The Arctic University of Norway Tromsø Norway

Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics 3rd Faculty of Medicine Charles University Prague Czech Republic

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