Dietary fatty acid patterns and risk of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Background. To characterize and examine the associations between dietary fatty acid intake patterns and the risk of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Methods. A total of 422 patients and 423 controls were recruited. Dietary fatty acids were entered into a factor analysis. Multivariable logistic regression and restricted cubic spline were used to evaluate the risk of ESCC specific for different dietary fatty acid patterns (FAPs). A forest plot was applied to show the association between FAPs and ESCC risk after stratification by lifestyle exposure factors (tobacco smoking, alcohol drinking, pickled food, fried food, hot food, hard food). Results. The factor analysis generated four major fatty acid patterns: a medium-and long-chain SFA (MLC-SFA) pattern; an even-chain unsaturated fatty acid (EC-UFA) pattern, a saturated fatty acid (SFA) pattern and an n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (n-3 LC-PUFA) pattern. In the multivariate-adjusted model, the odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of ESCC were 2.07 (1.31, 3.26) and 0.53 (0.34, 0.81) for the highest versus the lowest tertiles of the EC-UFA pattern and n-3 LC-PUFA pattern, respectively. The MLC-SFA and SFA patterns were not associated with ESCC. An association between FAPs and ESCC risk after stratification by lifestyle exposure factors was also observed. Conclusions. Our study indicates that the EC-UFA pattern and n-3 LC-PUFA pattern intake are associated with ESCC, providing a potential dietary intervention for ESCC prevention.