Adherence to the 2018 World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research cancer prevention recommendations and pancreatic cancer incidence and mortality: A prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Whether adherence to the World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research (WCRF/AICR) cancer prevention recommendations is associated with a reduced risk of pancreatic cancer remains controversial. Additionally, no study has investigated this association in the US population. Hence, we investigated the association of adherence to the 2018 WCRF/AICR cancer prevention recommendations with pancreatic cancer incidence and mortality in a US population. METHODS: A population‐based cohort of 95 962 participants was identified. A score incorporating eight WCRF/AICR components was constructed to reflect adherence to the WCRF/AICR guidelines, with higher scores representing greater adherence to the guidelines. Cox and competing risk regression were used to calculate risk estimates for pancreatic cancer incidence and mortality, respectively. Restricted cubic spline functions were used to test nonlinearity. RESULTS: In the fully adjusted model, higher overall WCRF/AICR scores were shown to be associated with lower risks of developing pancreatic cancer (hazard ratio(tertile 3 vs 1):0.67; 95% confidence interval: 0.49, 0.90; P (trend) = .0099) and mortality due to this cancer (subdistribution hazard ratio(tertile 3 vs 1) 0.65; 95% confidence interval: 0.47, 0.89; P (trend) = .0108) in a linear dose–response manner (all P (nonlinearity) > .05). The component “be physically active” was shown to be a key contributor to the observed associations. No association of the diet‐specific WCRF/AICR score with pancreatic incidence and mortality was found. CONCLUSIONS: Adherence to the 2018 WCRF/AICR guidelines, especially “be physically active,” confers reduced risks of pancreatic cancer incidence and mortality in the US population; however, adherence to dietary components alone does not confer such beneficial effects.