Adherence to a low-fat dietary pattern reduces head and neck cancer risk: evidence from the PLCO trial

Low-fat dietary (LFD) pattern refers to a dietary structure with reduced fat intake. The aim was to investigate the association between LFD pattern and risk of head and neck cancer (HNC).

Data were derived from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial. LFD score was used to assess adherence to an LFD pattern, with higher scores indicating greater adherence. Cox regression was used to evaluate the association between LFD score and risk of HNC and its subtypes. To visualize the trend in risk of HNC and its subtypes with changing LFD score, restricted cubic spline plots were utilized. A series of subgroup analyses were conducted to identify potential confounders. Sensitivity analyses were performed to assess the robustness of the results.

Among 98,459 participants of PLCO trial, 268 cases with HNC were identified during an average of 8.8 years of follow-up. In the fully adjusted model, participants in the highest compared with the lowest quartiles of LFD score had a lower risk of HNC (HR _{Q4 vs. Q1}: 0.60; 95% CI: 0.40-0.90; P for trend = 0.026) and larynx cancer (HR_{Q4 vs. Q1}: 0.46; 95% CI: 0.22-0.96; P for trend = 0.039). The restricted cubic spline plots demonstrated a linear dose-response relationship between the LFD score and the risk of HNC and its subtypes (all P for nonlinearity > 0.05). The primary association remained robust in the sensitivity analysis.

Our findings suggest that adherence to an LFD pattern may lower the risk of HNC in the US population.