Circulating concentrations of B group vitamins and urothelial cell carcinoma

B-group vitamins, as components of the one carbon metabolism pathway, are involved in DNA synthesis, repair and methylation. Our aim was to investigate associations between circulating plasma levels of B vitamins and urothelial cell carcinoma (UCC). We conducted a nested case-control study of UCC within the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study. B vitamins were measured in pre-diagnostic plasma samples. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (OR) for UCC risk associated with circulating B vitamins in 363 matched cases and controls. In a case-only analysis (N = 390), hazard ratios (HR) for overall survival associated with plasma B vitamins were estimated using Cox regression. There were no strong associations between UCC risk and pre-diagnostic levels of plasma B vitamins. No heterogeneity in UCC risk was observed by subtype (invasive or superficial), sex, smoking status or alcohol intake. There was no heterogeneity by country of birth for most B vitamins, except for folate (p-homogeneity = 0.03). In UCC cases, there were no strong associations between plasma B vitamins and overall survival. We found no associations between pre-diagnostic plasma concentrations of B-group vitamins and UCC risk or survival.