Association Between Dietary Vitamin K Intake With Cancer Cachexia and Mortality: NHANES 1999-2018

Research on the association between the development of cancer cachexia and dietary nutrient intake remains insufficient. We discussed the screening of dietary intake risks for cancer cachexia and further investigated the impact of vitamin K on the prognosis of cancer cachexia survivors. We ultimately analyzed 3489 NHANES participants across 10 cycles. Multivariate logistic regression analysis and restricted cubic spline (RCS) methods were used to explore the relationship between the intake of most dietary nutrients and the incidence of cancer cachexia. Further, multivariate Cox regression analysis, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, and RCS analysis were employed to examine the association between vitamin K intake and mortality among cancer cachexia survivors. The multivariate logistic regression model revealed that vitamin K, dietary fiber, β-carotene, food folate, and magnesium might increase the risk of cancer cachexia. In contrast, energy, α-carotene, retinol, lycopene, iron, and copper might reduce the risk of cancer cachexia. Further RCS analysis showed an inverse U-shaped relationship between vitamin K intake and the incidence of cancer cachexia. Multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that the high vitamin K intake group could reduce the risk of all-cause mortality (HR = 0.71; 95% CI, 0.60-0.84; p < 0.0001) and cardiac mortality (HR = 0.72; 95% CI, 0.54-0.84; p = 0.03) among cancer cachexia survivors. The intake of various dietary nutrients is associated with the incidence of cancer cachexia. In particular, there is an inverse U-shaped relationship between vitamin K intake and the incidence of cancer cachexia, and high vitamin K intake may reduce the risk of all-cause and cardiac mortality in cancer cachexia survivors.