Dietary vitamin K linked to decreased lymphoma risk

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic wanted to know whether it mattered how people consumed vitamin K in their risk of developing an NHL—either through diet or through vitamin supplements. So researchers put the hypothesis to the test that "dietary and supplemental intake of Vitamin K was inversely associated with risk of NHL."

Foods with lots of vitamin K include spinach and leaf lettuce, as well as other vegetables, fruits, and some vegetable oils.

Vitamin K is believed to have a role in causing arrest of the cell cycle and cell death, and it is also believed to have a role in inhibiting so-called inflammatory cytokines, which may be related to the development of some non-Hodgkin lymphomas.

BLOOD CANCER SUBTYPE(S) IN QUESTION

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), Follicular lymphoma, and Small lymphocytic lymphoma/chronic lymphocytic leukemia (SLL/CLL).

COHORT

This was a clinic-based study of 603 newly diagnosed NHL cases (mean age at diagnosis: 60.8 years) and 1007 frequency-matched controls (mean age at enrollment: 60.1 years).

RESEARCH FINDINGS

In short, researchers found that people whose dietary consumption of vitamin K were the highest had a 45 percent lower risk for developing NHLs compared to those with the least amount of dietary vitamin K consumption.

The researchers concluded that "Higher intake of vitamin K from the diet was inversely associated with risk of NHL overall and for the major subtypes. These first results, which require replication, suggest that the coagulation pathway or other biologic effects of vitamin K may play a role in lymphomagenesis."

PUBLICATION & SOURCES

This study was presented at the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) as an abstract and has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Source: Abstract from AACR