Skip the Soda to Avoid Cancer

A number of previous studies link the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages to an increased risk of obesity and type-2 diabetes.  Maki Inoue-Choi, from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health (Minnesota, USA), and colleagues analyzed data collected by the Iowa Women’s Health Study, involving women ages 55 to 69 years. The final analysis included 23,039 women who had a mean age of 61.6 at enrollment. During follow-up from 1986 to 2010, 592 women had diagnoses of invasive endometrial cancer, consisting of 506 type 1 (endometroid) cancers and 89 type II (nonendometroid) cancers. The team found that factors associated with endometrial cancer were older age, higher BMI, higher waist-hip ratio, history of diabetes, early menarche, delayed menopause, any estrogen therapy. Smoking and increasing number of live births were associated with lower risk. In an unadjusted analysis, the researchers calculated that an increasing intake of sugar-sweetened drinks (excluding fruit juices) had a dose-dependent association with type I endometrial cancer/  Women in the highest quintile of sugared beverage consumption had a 72% higher risk of type I endometrial cancer, as compared with women in the lowest quintile. After adjustment for BMI, the resulting relative risk for comparison of the highest and lowest quintiles of consumption increased to 78%.  A separate analysis of fruit juice consumption yielded relative risks that were 38% and 48% higher in the unadjusted and adjusted models.  The study authors submit that: “Higher intake of [sugar-sweetened beverages] and sugars was associated with an increased risk of type I, but not type II, endometrial cancer.”