Diet and Cancer (Poster Session)

(P12-030-25) Association Between Carbohydrate Quality and Long-Term Survival of Populations With Cancer: Evidence From a Prospective Cohort Study

Sunday, June 1, 2025

12:45 PM - 1:45 PM ET

Location: Poster Board E-27

Presenting Author(s)

QW

Qi Wu, PhD candidate

Doctor
Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, School of Public Health, Hubei Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety, Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene
wuhan, Hubei, China (People's Republic)

Co-Author(s)

ZS

Zhilei Shan, PhD

Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Wuhan

Disclosure(s):

Qi Wu, PhD candidate: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

Objectives: Dietary carbohydrate has been linked to survival outcomes in populations with cancer, but the specific impact of carbohydrate quality on total and cancer-specific mortality remains uncertain. This study aimed to assess the association between carbohydrate quality and mortality among individuals with cancer.

Methods: This cohort study included 12,708 participants with cancer (59.3% women, mean age 59.9 years) from the UK Biobank was analyzed, all having at least one reliable dietary assessment. As a comprehensive measure of carbohydrate quality, the carbohydrate quality index (CQI) was calculated by summing scores across 11 categories with equal sample sizes of four criteria: dietary fiber intake (positively scored, 0-10), glycemic index (reversely scored, 10-0), whole grain to total grain ratio (positively scored, 0-10), and solid to total carbohydrate ratio (positively scored, 0-10). Quartiles of CQI were used in Cox proportional hazard models to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence interval (CI) to estimate the associations between CQI and mortality. Restricted cubic spline regression was applied to explore dose-response relationships.

Results: Over a median follow-up of 12.6 years, 1,554 deaths, including 1,113 cancer-related deaths, were recorded. Compared to the lowest CQI quartile, the highest quartile showed multivariable-adjusted HRs of 0.81 (95% CI: 0.70, 0.93) for total mortality and 0.79 (95% CI: 0.67, 0.93) for cancer mortality. There was an inverse relationship between CQI and mortality (P for trend < 0.05 for all), with each 10-points increase in CQI associated with a 16% reduction in total mortality (HR: 0.84, 95% CI: 0.75, 0.93) and a 15% reduction in cancer mortality (HR: 0.85, 95% CI: 0.76, 0.96). Dose-response analyses indicated a generally linear association between CQI and mortality (P for overall < 0.05 and P for non-linearity > 0.05 for all).

Conclusions: A higher carbohydrate quality index is associated with a lower risk of total and cancer-specific mortality, suggesting that improving carbohydrate quality could be helpful to enhance long-term survival in populations with cancer.

Funding Sources: Dr. Shan is supported by the National Natural Science Fund for Excellent Young Scientists of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82222061).