Dietary protein and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma: a prospective cohort study

• Published in: Food & function Vol. 12; no. 22; pp. 11568 - 11576
• Main Authors: Yishake, Dinuerguli, He, Tong-tong, Liu, Zhao-yan, Chen, Si, Luo, Yan, Liu, Xiao-zhan, Huang, Rong-zhu, Lan, Qiu-ye, Fang, Ai-ping, Zhu, Hui-lian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Royal Society of Chemistry 15.11.2021
• Subjects: Adult; Animal protein; animal proteins; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular - diagnosis; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular - epidemiology; China; Cohort analysis; cohort studies; Confidence intervals; Diet; Diet - statistics & numerical data; Dietary intake; dietary protein; Dietary Proteins - analysis; Female; food frequency questionnaires; Food intake; Food sources; hazard ratio; Hepatocellular carcinoma; hepatoma; Humans; Liver cancer; Liver Neoplasms - diagnosis; Liver Neoplasms - epidemiology; Male; Middle Aged; Mortality; plant proteins; Prognosis; Prospective Studies; protein content; protein intake; Proteins; Statistical models; China
• ISSN: 2042-6496; 2042-650X; 2042-650X
• DOI: 10.1039/d1fo02013g

Dietary protein has been linked with all-cause and cancer mortality. However, the relationship between dietary protein and the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is still unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether dietary protein intake was related to HCC mortality using data from the Guangdong Liver Cancer Cohort (GLCC), a prospective cohort study of HCC survivors established at the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center. Dietary information one year before the diagnosis of HCC was obtained through a 79-item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). A total of 883 patients with newly diagnosed HCC who were recruited between September 2013 and April 2017 were included in this study. The hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were estimated by Cox proportional hazard models. The multivariate-adjusted HRs in the highest vs. the lowest tertile of total protein intake were 0.68 (95% CI: 0.52-0.91, P -trend = 0.007) for all-cause mortality and 0.74 (95% CI: 0.55-0.99, P -trend = 0.040) for HCC-specific mortality. However, the associations of animal protein intake, plant protein intake, and animal-to-plant protein ratio with all-cause and HCC-specific mortality were not significant (all P -trend >0.05). Our research suggests that higher prediagnostic dietary intake of total protein was associated with reduced all-cause and HCC-specific mortality. Dietary protein has been linked with all-cause and cancer mortality. However, the relationship between protein and the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is still unknown.