Dietary phytocompounds and risk of lymphoid malignancies in the California Teachers Study cohort

We examined whether dietary intake of isoflavones, lignans, isothiocyanates, antioxidants, or specific foods rich in these compounds is associated with reduced risk of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), multiple myeloma (MM), or Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) in a large, prospective cohort of women.

Between 1995-1996 and 31 December 2007, among 110,215 eligible members of the California Teachers Study cohort, 536 women developed incident B-cell NHL, 104 developed MM, and 34 developed HL. Cox proportional hazards regression, with age as the time scale, was used to estimate adjusted rate ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for risk of lymphoid malignancies.

Weak inverse associations with risk of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma were observed for isothiocyanates (RR for ≥12.1 vs. <2.7 mcM/day = 0.67, 95% CI: 0.43-1.05) and an antioxidant index measuring hydroxyl radical absorbance capacity (RR for ≥2.2 vs. <0.9 microM Trolox equiv/g/day = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.42-1.10; p (trend) = 0.08). Risk of other NHL subtypes, overall B-cell NHL, MM, or HL was not generally associated with dietary intake of isoflavones, lignans, isothiocyanates, antioxidants, or major food sources of these compounds.

Isoflavones, lignans, isothiocyanates, and antioxidant compounds are not associated with risk of most B-cell malignancies, but some phytocompounds may decrease the risk of selected subtypes.