Diet quality and colorectal tumor risk in persons with Lynch syndrome

Persons with Lynch syndrome (LS) have an increased risk of developing colorectal tumors (CRTs). Adherence to diet quality indices associated with colorectal cancer (CRC) risk in the general population has not been studied before in LS.

Dietary habits of 490 participants with LS from a prospective cohort study was collected using a food frequency questionnaire. The Dutch Healthy Diet index 2015 (DHD15-index) and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) were used to score food-based diet quality. Diet quality scores were divided into tertiles where a higher tertile reflects a higher diet quality. Multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to estimate the association between the DHD15-index, DASH score and CRT risk.

During a median follow-up time of 53.4 months, 210 participants (42.9%) developed CRTs. The DHD-index and DASH score were not associated with CRT risk; hazard ratios for highest vs. lowest tertile were 1.00 (95% Confidence Interval (CI): 0.67-1.48) and 1.11 (95% CI: 0.74-1.69), respectively. No linear trends across the DHD-index and DASH score tertiles were observed (P-trend = 0.97 and 0.83 respectively).

In contrast to observations in the general population, no evidence for an association between the food-based DHD15-index or DASH score and CRT risk was observed in persons with LS. Further studies are needed investigating the association between diet quality and mechanisms leading to the development of LS-associated tumors.