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Interactions Between Vitamin D and Calcium Intake, Vitamin D Receptor Genetic Polymorphisms, and Colorectal Cancer Risk

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Abstract

Background

Vitamin D has anticarcinogenic properties and acts through vitamin D receptor (VDR) to carry out its functions.

Aims

This study explored the independent and combined effects of dietary vitamin D and calcium, and VDR genetic polymorphisms on colorectal cancer risk in a Chinese population.

Methods

This ongoing case–control study recruited 488 cases with histologically confirmed colorectal cancer and 496 sex- and age-matched controls. Vitamin D and calcium intakes were assessed by a validated food frequency questionnaire, and VDR genotype was conducted for Fok I (rs2228570), Bsm I (rs1544410), Apa I (rs7975232), and Taq I (rs731236). Unconditional logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratio and 95% confidence interval after adjusting for various confounders.

Results

No significant association was found between Fok I, Bsm I, Apa I, Taq I, and colorectal cancer risk. Higher intakes of dietary vitamin D and calcium were associated with 47% and 50% reduction in colorectal cancer risk. Significant interaction was observed between dietary vitamin D intake and Apa I polymorphisms in relation to colorectal cancer risk (Pinteraction = 0.006). Subjects with higher dietary vitamin D intake and mutant Apa I A allele had a substantially decreased risk of colorectal cancer compared to Apa I aa carriers with lower vitamin D intake.

Conclusions

Our study supports that Apa I may interact with dietary vitamin D intake on colorectal cancer risk. However, no interactions were found between dietary vitamin D or calcium intakes and Fok I, Bsm I, and Taq I in relation to colorectal cancer risk.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the contribution of the study participants; without them the study would not have been possible.

Funding

This study was supported by Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (No: 2019A1515011931) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No: 81973020). The funders had no role in the design of the study, analysis of the data, or writing of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510080, China

    Xin Zhang, Xiao-Li Feng, Alinuer Abulimiti, Chu-Yi Huang, Hong Luo & Cai-Xia Zhang

  2. Department of Colorectal Surgery, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, 651 Dongfeng Road East, Guangzhou, 510060, China

    Yu-Jing Fang

  3. Department of Experimental Research, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, 651 Dongfeng Road East, Guangzhou, 510060, China

    Yu-Jing Fang

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  1. Xin Zhang
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Contributions

The author’s responsibilities were as follows: XZ collected the data, did the experiments, analyzed the data, and wrote the paper. YJF were responsible for connecting and coordinating the field work. XLF, AA, CYH, and HL participated in data collection and data entry. CXZ constructed the project design, supervised the study, and contributed to manuscript writing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cai-Xia Zhang.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in this study.

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Zhang, X., Fang, YJ., Feng, XL. et al. Interactions Between Vitamin D and Calcium Intake, Vitamin D Receptor Genetic Polymorphisms, and Colorectal Cancer Risk. Dig Dis Sci 66, 1895–1905 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10620-020-06455-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10620-020-06455-4

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