Fatty acid proportions in cholesterol esters and risk of premature death from cancer in middle aged French men

BMJ 1995;311:1251-1254 (11 November)

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Fatty acid proportions in cholesterol esters and risk of premature death from cancer in middle aged French men

Mahmoud Zureik, research fellow,^a Pierre Ducimetiere, director of research,^a Jean-Michel Warnet, professor of toxicology,^b Genevieve Orssaud, director ^b

^a Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale (INSERM), Unit 258, Hopital Broussais, 75014-Paris, France, ^b Laboratoire de la Direction de l'Action Sociale, de l'Enfance et de la Sante, Centre Medico-Social, 75013-Paris, France

Correspondence to: Dr Zureik.

Abstract

Objective: To assess the association of proportions of fattyacids in cholesterol esters with the risk of premature deathfrom cancer in middle aged men.
Design: Prospective cohort study.
Setting: Paris, France.
Subjects: 3277 working men aged 36-52 in 1981-5.
Main outcome measures: Cancer mortality during an average of9.3 years of follow up.
Results: 59 men died of cancer during follow up. The age adjustedrelative risks for men in the highest thirds of the distributionof the proportions of linoleic, palmitoleic, and oleic acidin cholesterol esters as compared with those in the correspondinglowest thirds were 0.16 (95% confidence interval 0.05 to 0.51),3.39 (1.63 to 7.05), and 4.22 (1.95 to 9.12), respectively.Adjustment for and stratification by smoking, alcohol consumption,serum cholesterol concentration, and body mass index did notalter the results. At the time of examination subjects withcancer had a lower intake of polyunsaturated fats, assessedby 24 hour recall, than those without cancer (13.2 v 17.4 g/day,P<0.01).
Conclusions: Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acidsof cholesterol esters are strong biological markers that predictpremature death from cancer in French men. Consistently, intakeof polyunsaturated fats did not seem to increase the risk ofdeath from cancer. The association of biological markers ofdietary fat intake with incidence of and mortality from cancershould be investigated prospectively in other populations.

Key messages

Key messages
These results and those obtained from 24 hour recall of dietary intake indicate that intake of polyunsaturated fat, at least, does not increase the risk of death from cancer
The results might vary with population habits (diet, alcohol intake, etc) and should be studied in other countries

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