Garlic and grape seed supplement use is inversely associated with hematological malignancies.

Vitamin, mineral, and specialty supplements and risk of hematologic malignancies in the prospective VITamins And Lifestyle (VITAL) study.

Roland B Walter, Theodore M Brasky, Filippo Milano, Emily White

Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev

Jul 29, 2011

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Increasing evidence suggests that nutrients from fruits and vegetables have chemoprotective properties on various cancers including hematologic malignancies, but the effects of nutritional supplements are poorly examined. METHODS: Herein, we prospectively evaluated the association of vitamin, mineral, and specialty supplements with incident hematologic malignancies in 66,227 men and women aged 50 to 76 years from Washington State recruited from 2000-2002 to the VITamins And Lifestyle (VITAL) cohort study. Hematologic malignancies cases (n=588) were identified through December 2008 by linkage to the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) cancer registry. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) associated with supplement use were estimated with Cox proportional hazards models. RESULTS: After adjustment, high use of garlic supplements (≥4 days/week for ≥3 years; HR=0.55 [95% confidence interval: 0.34-0.87]; p=0.028 for trend) and ever use of grape seed supplements (HR=0.57 [0.37-0.88]) were inversely associated with hematologic malignancies in our models. In addition, high use (8-10 pill-years) of multivitamins was suggestiveof an inverse association (HR)=0.80 [0.64-1.01]). In contrast, no associations were observed for the remaining supplements. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that use of garlic and grape seed may be associated with reduced risk of hematologic malignancies.Impact: This is the first cohort study to suggest a possible role of these supplements in the chemoprevention of hematologic malignancies.