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Homocysteine, cysteine and risk of incident colorectal cancer in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Cohort
Author(s) -
Miller Joshua W,
Beresford Shirley A,
Brown Elissa C,
Cheng David,
Green Ralph,
Neuhouser Marian L,
Rodriguez Beatriz,
Zheng Yingye,
Ulrich Cornelia M
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.25.1_supplement.214.8
Subject(s) - homocysteine , medicine , hyperhomocysteinemia , quartile , odds ratio , colorectal cancer , gastroenterology , cohort , risk factor , case control study , endocrinology , oncology , cancer , confidence interval
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a risk factor for colorectal cancer (CRC), as is low intake of folate. Hyperhomocysteinemia is highly prevalent in patients with IBD and is a marker of low folate status; thus homocysteine may serve as a risk marker for CRC. Cysteine is a metabolic product of homocysteine and a precursor for glutathione, an important intracellular antioxidant. It is unknown if cysteine is associated with CRC. We investigated the associations between homocysteine and cysteine and incident CRC in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Cohort using a nested case‐control design. Cases and controls (n=988 per group) were matched for age (mean 67±7 yrs) and ethnicity. Multivariate‐adjusted odds ratios (95% CI) for incident CRC were 1.4 (1.0, 1.9) for those subjects in the highest quartile of homocysteine (>9.8 μmol/L) compared with the lowest (≤6.8 μmol/L) (p=0.03), and 0.6 (0.4, 0.8) for those in the highest quartile of cysteine (>308 μmol/L) compared with the lowest (≤259 μmol/L) (p=0.007). The associations were statistically significant for proximal tumors (p≤0.04), but not for distal tumors, and were significant for localized tumors (p≤0.01), but not for metastases. These data indicate that high plasma homocysteine is associated with increased risk of CRC, while high cysteine is associated with decreased risk. Funding: NIH R01 CA120523 , NIH N01 WH22110