Association between fruit intake and non-small cell lung cancer: a Mendelian randomization study

Area of Science:

• Nutritional Epidemiology
• Oncology
• Genetic Epidemiology

Background:

• Previous research explored fruit consumption and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) risk, but the specific impact of dried fruits remained unclear.
• Observational studies often face limitations due to confounding variables.
• This study aimed to clarify the relationship between fruit intake and NSCLC risk.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the potential causal association between fruit intake and the risk of developing non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
• To differentiate the effects of dried fruit versus fresh fruit consumption on NSCLC risk.

Main Methods:

• Utilized UK Biobank data for fruit intake and a genome-wide association study (GWAS) dataset of 218,792 individuals for NSCLC data.
• Employed a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis, primarily using the inverse variance weighted (IVW) method.
• Conducted sensitivity analyses to ensure the robustness of the findings.

Main Results:

• Found convincing evidence that dried fruit intake is associated with a reduced risk of NSCLC.
• Observed a significant reduction in NSCLC odds ratio (OR) of 0.32 (95% CI: 0.15, 0.67; P=0.003) with dried fruit consumption.
• No statistically significant association was found between fresh fruit intake and NSCLC risk.

Conclusions:

• Dried fruit consumption shows a significant correlation with reduced NSCLC risk.
• The association between fresh fruit intake and NSCLC risk was not statistically significant.
• Further prospective randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are recommended to validate these findings.