Raw Garlic Consumption and Risk of Liver Cancer: A Population-Based Case-Control Study in Eastern China

Xing Liu^{1

2

3}, Aileen Baecker¹, Ming Wu⁴, Jin-Yi Zhou⁴, Jie Yang⁴, Ren-Qiang Han⁴, Pei-Hua Wang⁴, Ai-Min Liu⁵, Xiaoping Gu⁵, Xiao-Feng Zhang⁶, Xu-Shan Wang⁶, Ming Su⁷, Xu Hu⁷, Zheng Sun⁸, Gang Li⁸, Zi-Yi Jin², Su Yon Jung^{9

10}, Lina Mu¹¹, Na He², Qing-Yi Lu¹², Liming Li¹³, Jin-Kou Zhao⁴, Zuo-Feng Zhang^{14

15}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Epidemiology, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), CA 90095, USA.
² Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
³ Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
⁴ Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Nanjing 210009, China.
⁵ Dafeng Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Dafeng 224100, China.
⁶ Ganyu Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Ganyu 222003, China.
⁷ Chuzhou County Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Chuzhou 223001, China.
⁸ Tongshan County Center for Disease control and Prevention, Tongshan 221006, China.
⁹ Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
¹⁰ School of Nursing, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
¹¹ Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health, School of Public Health and Health Professions, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA.
¹² Center for Human Nutrition, Department of Medicine, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
¹³ Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing 100083, China.
¹⁴ Department of Epidemiology, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), CA 90095, USA. zfzhang@ucla.edu.
¹⁵ Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. zfzhang@ucla.edu.

PMID: 31480423
PMCID: PMC6769938
DOI: 10.3390/nu11092038

Raw Garlic Consumption and Risk of Liver Cancer: A Population-Based Case-Control Study in Eastern China

Xing Liu et al. Nutrients. 2019.

. 2019 Aug 31;11(9):2038.

doi: 10.3390/nu11092038.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Epidemiology, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), CA 90095, USA.
² Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
³ Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
⁴ Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Nanjing 210009, China.
⁵ Dafeng Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Dafeng 224100, China.
⁶ Ganyu Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Ganyu 222003, China.
⁷ Chuzhou County Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Chuzhou 223001, China.
⁸ Tongshan County Center for Disease control and Prevention, Tongshan 221006, China.
⁹ Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
¹⁰ School of Nursing, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
¹¹ Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health, School of Public Health and Health Professions, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA.
¹² Center for Human Nutrition, Department of Medicine, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
¹³ Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing 100083, China.
¹⁴ Department of Epidemiology, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), CA 90095, USA. zfzhang@ucla.edu.
¹⁵ Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. zfzhang@ucla.edu.

PMID: 31480423
PMCID: PMC6769938
DOI: 10.3390/nu11092038

Abstract

Although the major risk factors for liver cancer have been established, preventive factors for liver cancer have not been fully explored. We evaluated the association between raw garlic consumption and liver cancer in a large population-based case-control study in Eastern China. The study was conducted in Jiangsu, China, from 2003 to 2010. A total of 2011 incident liver cancer cases and 7933 randomly selected population-controls were interviewed. Epidemiological data including raw garlic intake and other exposures were collected, and serum markers of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection were assayed. Overall, eating raw garlic twice or more per week was inversely associated with liver cancer, with an adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of 0.77 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.62-0.96) compared to those ingesting no raw garlic or less than twice per week. In stratified analyses, high intake of raw garlic was inversely associated with liver cancer among Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) negative individuals, frequent alcohol drinkers, those having history of eating mold-contaminated food or drinking raw water, and those without family history of liver cancer. Marginal interactions on an additive scale were observed between low raw garlic intake and HBsAg positivity (attributable proportion due to interaction (AP) = 0.31, 95% CI: -0.01-0.62) and heavy alcohol drinking (AP = 0.28, 95% CI: 0.00-0.57). Raw garlic consumption is inversely associated with liver cancer. Such an association shed some light on the potential etiologic role of garlic intake on liver cancer, which in turn might provide a possible dietary intervention to reduce liver cancer in Chinese population.

Keywords: Chinese population; garlic; hepatitis B virus; interaction; liver cancer.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Raw Garlic Consumption and Risk of Liver Cancer: A Population-Based Case-Control Study in Eastern China

Affiliations

Raw Garlic Consumption and Risk of Liver Cancer: A Population-Based Case-Control Study in Eastern China

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

References

MeSH terms

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Medical