Background: The role of dietary habits in the etiology of pancreatic cancer (PC) has not yet been well elucidated.
Aim: The aim of the present study was to examine the association of the frequency of different food groups' intake and their cooking methods with PC risk based on a well-designed case-control study.
Methods: A case-control study including 307 PC patients and 322 controls referred to four tertiary endosonography centers was conducted from January 2011 to January 2014 to compare the frequency intake of different food items and their cooking methods between cases and controls.
Results: After adjustment for gender, age, body mass index, years of education, diabetes and alcohol history, smoking status, and opium use, a significant direct relationship was observed between PC risk and intake frequency (time/week) of bread (OR = 1.50; 95 % CI 1.05-2.13; p-value 0.024), rice (OR = 2.10; 95 % CI 1.15-3.82; p for trend 0.034), and red meat (OR = 2.25; 95 % CI 1.22-4.14; p for trend 0.033) (time/day), when comparing the highest category of intake frequency with the lowest, while increasing frequency of fish consumption was associated with a lower risk of PC (OR = 0.93; 95 % CI0.59-1.47; p for trend 0.009). Increasing consumption of barbecuing red meat and deep fried vegetables was associated with 67 % and 70 % increased risk of PC (p-value 0.025 and 0.006, respectively).
Conclusion: Our results indicate that increased frequency of intake of bread, rice, and red meat (especially barbecued) and deep fried vegetables can aggregate PC risk, while increased frequency of fish consumption can protect against PC. However, more studies are still needed.