Associations between colorectal cancer risk and dietary intake of tomato, tomato products, and lycopene: evidence from a prospective study of 101,680 US adults

Zongze Jiang; Huilin Chen; Ming Li; Wei Wang; Feiwu Long; Chuanwen Fan

doi:10.3389/fonc.2023.1220270

Associations between colorectal cancer risk and dietary intake of tomato, tomato products, and lycopene: evidence from a prospective study of 101,680 US adults

Front Oncol. 2023 Aug 11:13:1220270. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1220270. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Zongze Jiang¹, Huilin Chen^{2

3}, Ming Li^{1

4}, Wei Wang¹, Feiwu Long¹, Chuanwen Fan^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Gastrointestinal, Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery, Research Center for Nutrition, Metabolism and Food Safety, West China-PUMC C.C. Chen Institute of Health, West China School of Public Health and West China Fourth Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
² Department of Immunology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
³ School of Basic Medicine, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
⁴ Department of Nutrition, Food Hygiene, and Toxicology, West China School of Public Health and West China Fourth Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
⁵ Department of Oncology and Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.

Abstract

Background: Previous epidemiological studies have yielded inconsistent results regarding the effects of dietary tomato, tomato products, and lycopene on the incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC), possibly due to variations in sample sizes and study designs.

Methods: The current study used multivariable Cox regression, subgroup analyses, and restricted cubic spline functions to investigate correlations between CRC incidence and mortality and raw tomato, tomato salsa, tomato juice, tomato catsup, and lycopene intake, as well as effect modifiers and nonlinear dose-response relationships in 101,680 US adults from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial.

Results: During follow-up 1100 CRC cases and 443 CRC-specific deaths occurred. After adjustment for confounding variables, high consumption of tomato salsa was significantly associated with a reduced risk of CRC incidence (hazard ratio comparing the highest category with the lowest category 0.8, 95% confidence interval 0.65-0.99, p for trend = 0.039), but not with a reduced risk of CRC mortality. Raw tomatoes, tomato juice, tomato catsup, and lycopene consumption were not significantly associated with CRC incidence or CRC mortality. No potential effect modifiers or nonlinear associations were detected, indicating the robustness of the results.

Conclusion: In the general US population a higher intake of tomato salsa is associated with a lower CRC incidence, suggesting that tomato salsa consumption has beneficial effects in terms of cancer prevention, but caution is warranted when interpreting these findings. Further prospective studies are needed to evaluate its potential effects in other populations.

Keywords: LYCOPENE; PLCO; cohort; colorectal cancer; dietary nutrients; tomato.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province, China (Grant No. 2022NSFSC0764) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No.2022SCU12025 and 2022SCU12020).