A high intake of choline reduces risk of certain cancers, meta-analysis shows
Highlights
- Meta-analysis of 11 case-control or cohort studies with significant heterogeneity
- High choline consumption, alone or with betaine, contributes to cancer prevention
- Increasing choline and betaine intake by 100 mg/day reduces cancer risk by 11%
Summary
This meta-analysis was designed to investigate the effect of choline (and betaine) on cancer risk reduction.
Eligible for inclusion were population studies published in the literature up to March 2016. Study participants were men and women, aged 18 to 98 years, from the United States, China, and Australia. Studies investigated the role of choline and betaine in several types of cancer (i.e., colorectal, breast, esophageal, lung, nasopharyngeal, epithelial ovarian and renal cell cancers). A Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) was used in all studies to estimate dietary choline and betaine intakes. All studies provided adjusted risk estimates.
Eleven case-control or cohort studies, published between 2007 and 2015, met the inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis, providing a combined total of 14,488 cases among 513,390 participants. Studies had significant heterogeneity.
The pooled relative risks of cancer for the highest versus the lowest intakes were 0.82 (95% CI, 0.70 to 0.97) for choline consumption only, 0.86 (95%CI, 0.76 to 0.97) for betaine consumption only and 0.60 (95%CI, 0.40 to 0.90) for choline plus betaine consumption, respectively. A significant protective effect of dietary choline and betaine for cancer was observed when stratified by study design, location, cancer type, publication year, sex, and study quality. Dose-response analysis indicates an increment of 100 mg/day of choline plus betaine intake helped reduce cancer incidence by 11% (0.89, 95% CI, 0.87 to 0.92).
These findings indicate that an optimal intake of choline (and/or betaine) is associated with a lower risk of certain cancers.
