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Glucosamine use and risk of colorectal cancer: results from the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort

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Abstract

Purpose

Use of glucosamine supplements has been associated with reduced risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) in previous studies; however, information on this association remains limited.

Methods

We examined the association between glucosamine use and CRC risk among 113,067 men and women in the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort. Glucosamine use was first reported in 2001 and updated every 2 years thereafter. Participants were followed from 2001 through June of 2011, during which time 1440 cases of CRC occurred.

Results

As has been observed in prior studies, current use of glucosamine, modeled using a time-varying exposure, was associated with lower risk of CRC (HR 0.83; 95% CI 0.71–0.97) compared to never use. However, for reasons that are unclear, this reduction in risk was observed for shorter-duration use (HR 0.68; 95% CI 0.52–0.87 for current users with ≤ 2 years use) rather than longer-duration use (HR 0.90; 95% CI 0.72–1.13 for current users with 3 to < 6 years of use; HR 0.99; 95% CI 0.76–1.29 for current users with ≥ 6 years of use).

Conclusions

Further research is needed to better understand the association between glucosamine use and risk of CRC, and how this association may vary by duration of use.

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Acknowledgments

The American Cancer Society funds the creation, maintenance, and updating of the Cancer Prevention Study II (CPS-II) cohort. We thank the CPS-II participants and Study Management Group for their invaluable contributions to this research. We also acknowledge the contribution to this study from central cancer registries supported through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Program of Cancer Registries, as well as cancer registries supported by the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results program. Elizabeth D. Kantor is supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (P30 CA008748).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 485 Lexington Avenue, 2nd Floor, New York, NY, 10017, USA

    Elizabeth D. Kantor

  2. Epidemiology Research Program, American Cancer Society, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Christina C. Newton, Marjorie L. McCullough, Peter T. Campbell & Eric J. Jacobs

  3. Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Edward L. Giovannucci

  4. Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Edward L. Giovannucci

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  1. Elizabeth D. Kantor
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  2. Christina C. Newton
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  3. Edward L. Giovannucci
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  4. Marjorie L. McCullough
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  5. Peter T. Campbell
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  6. Eric J. Jacobs
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Correspondence to Elizabeth D. Kantor.

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Kantor, E.D., Newton, C.C., Giovannucci, E.L. et al. Glucosamine use and risk of colorectal cancer: results from the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort. Cancer Causes Control 29, 389–397 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-018-1003-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-018-1003-6

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