A prospective study of fish, marine fatty acids, and bladder cancer risk among men and women (United States).

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate prospectively the association between intakes of fish, marine fatty acids, and bladder cancer risk in two ongoing cohorts, the Health Professionals Follow-up Study and the Nurses' Health Study.

METHODS

During 16 and 18 years of follow-up, 501 and 235 incident cases of bladder cancer were diagnosed among men and women, respectively. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate incidence rate ratios (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) between fish intake and bladder cancer risk adjusting for age, total caloric intake, pack-years of cigarette smoking, and current smoking.

RESULTS

We observed no significant overall association between total fish intake and bladder cancer risk, even when we compared >/=1 servings of fish per day to fish intake </=1-3 servings per month. Among men, a statistically significant lower risk of bladder cancer was observed among men consuming fish or high marine fatty acid, after excluding the first 4 years of follow-up (MV RR = 0.60; 95% CI, 0.38-0.94, for >/=1 total fish servings per day compared to </=1-3 servings per month).

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, these findings suggest that fish intake is not likely to be appreciably associated with the risk of bladder cancer.