People consuming more Vitamin K1 were 40 percent less likely to get Pancreatic Cancer

Created October 2021

Dietary Vitamin K Intake and the Risk of Pancreatic Cancer: A Prospective Study of 101,695 American Adults

American Journal of Epidemiology, Volume 190, Issue 10, October 2021, Pages 2029–2041, https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwab131

Dao-Wu Yu, Qu-Jin Li, Long Cheng, Peng-Fei Yang, Wei-Ping Sun, Yang Peng, Jie-Jun Hu, Jing-Jing Wu, Jian-Ping Gong, Guo-Chao Zhong

1. What provides the benefit? K1 and/or K2?* Animals may also convert it (K1) to vitamin K2, variant MK-4. Bacteria in the gut flora can also convert K1 into MK-4. Wikipedia Oct 2021* Naturally occurring K vitamins inhibit pancreatic cancer cell survival through a caspase-dependent pathway- 2010 10.1111/j.1440-1746.2009.06085.x.* Vitamin K intake and pancreatic cancer incidence and death in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer (PLCO) Screening Trial - Study started Oct 2020- both K1 and K2 1. Vitamin D Life pages with K1 in the title{LIST()}--- 1. Vitamin D Life Vitamin K pages containing CANCER in titleThis list is automatically updated{LIST()}--- 1. Overview Vitamin K and Vitamin D contains the following summary{include}

No epidemiologic studies have been conducted to assess the association of intake of dietary vitamin K with the risk of pancreatic cancer. We used prospective data from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial between 1993 and 2009 to fill this gap. A total of 101,695 subjects were identified. Dietary intakes of phylloquinone (vitamin K1), menaquinones (vitamin K2), and dihydrophylloquinone (dihydrovitamin K1) were assessed using a food frequency questionnaire. Cox regression was applied to calculate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals. During a mean follow-up of 8.86 years (900,744.57 person-years), 361 cases of pancreatic cancer were documented. In the fully adjusted model, dietary intakes of

  • phylloquinone (for quartile 4 vs. quartile 1, hazard ratio (HR) = 0.57, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.39, 0.83; P for trend = 0.002) and

  • dihydrophylloquinone (for quartile 4 vs. quartile 1, HR = 0.59; 95% CI: 0.41, 0.85; P for trend = 0.006),

  • but not menaquinones (for quartile 4 vs. quartile 1, HR = 0.93; 95% CI: 0.65, 1.33; P for trend = 0.816),

were found to be inversely associated with the risk of pancreatic cancer in a nonlinear dose–response manner (all P values for nonlinearity < 0.05), and this was not modified by predefined stratification factors and remained in sensitivity analyses.

In conclusion, dietary intakes of phylloquinone and dihydrophylloquinone, but not menaquinones, confer a lower risk of pancreatic cancer. Future studies should confirm our findings.

Tags: Pancreatic Cancer Vitamin K