ONCOmmunity

Sugar-sweetened beverage, artificially sweetened beverage and sugar intake and colorectal cancer survival.

By: Emilie S Zoltick, Stephanie A Smith-Warner, Chen Yuan, Molin Wang, Charles S Fuchs, Jeffrey A Meyerhardt, Andrew T Chan, Kimmie Ng, Shuji Ogino, Meir J Stampfer, Edward L Giovannucci, Kana Wu

Center for Healthcare Research in Pediatrics, Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
2020-08-10; doi: 10.1038/s41416-021-01487-7

Abstract

Background

The influence of a high sugar diet on colorectal cancer (CRC) survival is unclear.

Methods

Among 1463 stage I-III CRC patients from the Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study, we estimated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for CRC-specific and all-cause mortality in relation to intake of post-diagnosis sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB), artificially sweetened beverages (ASB), fruit juice, fructose and other sugars.

Results

Over a median 8.0 years, 781 cases died (173 CRC-specific deaths). Multivariable-adjusted HRs for post-diagnosis intake and CRC-specific mortality were 1.21 (95% CI: 0.87-1.68) per 1 serving SSBs per day (serving/day) and 1.24 (95% CI: 0.95-1.63) per 20 grams fructose per day. Significant positive associations for CRC-specific mortality were primarily observed ≤5 years from diagnosis (HR per 1 serving/day of SSBs = 1.59, 95% CI: 1.06-2.38). Significant inverse associations were observed between ASBs and CRC-specific and all-cause mortality (HR for ≥5 versus <1 serving/week = 0.44, 95% CI: 0.26-0.75 and 0.70, 95% CI: 0.55-0.89, respectively).

Conclusions

Higher post-diagnosis intake of SSBs and sugars may be associated with higher CRC-specific mortality, but only up to 5 years from diagnosis, when more deaths were due to CRC. The inverse association between ASBs and CRC-specific mortality warrants further examination.