Open AccessA prospective evaluation of serum kynurenine metabolites and risk of pancreatic cancer
Author(s) -
Joyce Y. Huang,
Lesley M. Butler,
Øivind Midttun,
Arve Ulvik,
Renwei Wang,
Aizhen Jin,
YuTang Gao,
Per Magne Ueland,
WoonPuay Koh,
JianMin Yuan
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0196465
Subject(s) - pancreatic cancer , odds ratio , medicine , neopterin , kynurenine , pyridoxal , prospective cohort study , cancer , case control study , gastroenterology , endocrinology , confounding , oncology , biology , tryptophan , biochemistry , enzyme , amino acid
Background Serum pyridoxal 5’-phosphate (PLP), the active form of vitamin B 6 , is associated with reduced risk of pancreatic cancer. Data on functional measures of vitamin B 6 status and risk of pancreatic cancer is lacking. Methods A nested case-control study involving 187 incident cases of pancreatic cancer and 362 individually matched controls were conducted within two prospective cohorts to evaluate the associations between kynurenine metabolites in pre-diagnostic serum samples and risk of pancreatic cancer. Results Higher serum concentrations of 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid (HAA) and the HAA:3-hydroxykynurenine (HK) ratio (a measure for in vivo functional status of PLP) were significantly associated with reduced risk of pancreatic cancer. Compared with the lowest tertile, odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) of pancreatic cancer for the highest tertile was 0.62 (0.39, 1.01) for HAA, and 0.59 (0.35–0.98) for the HAA:HK ratio, after adjustment for potential confounders and serum PLP (both P s for trend<0.05). The kynurenine:tryptophan ratio or neopterin was not significantly associated with pancreatic cancer risk. Conclusions The inverse association between HAA or the HAA:HK ratio and risk of pancreatic cancer supports the notion that functional status of PLP may be a more important measure than circulating PLP alone for the development of pancreatic cancer.