Dietary Assessment as a Means to Modulate Inflammation in Patients with Prostate Cancer

Abstract

Introduction Inflammation is associated with increased risk of prostate cancer. Diet can modulate inflammation through changes in energy and diet quality. Diet quality scores, assessed by measuring what individuals eat, are related to inflammatory markers measured in the blood. The purpose of this project is to measure diet quality using verified diet quality indices, and then to evaluate which of these indices scores is most closely associated with certain inflammatory biomarkers in overweight men with prostate cancer. Methods Data was collected at three separate time points; baseline, surgery (after weight loss), and study end (after 12 weeks weight maintenance). Two 24-hour recalls were entered into the Nutrition Data System for Research software and the dietary output was averaged and used, with authors’ guidance, to obtain scores for the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI), the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII), and the energy-adjusted Dietary Inflammatory Index (e-DII). Blood was centrifuged to obtain serum, which was then used to obtain high sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hs-CRP), and Interleukin-6 (IL-6) measurements. Inferential statistics were calculated to find associations between the dietary scores and the inflammatory biomarkers, hs-CRP and IL-6. Results At baseline the DII scores had the strongest correlation to IL-6 (R=0.0404), and none of the dietary scores correlated with hs-CRP in the appropriate direction. When looking at changes from baseline to the surgery time-point, during weight loss, the e-DII scores had the strongest correlation to IL-6 (R=0.0554), and the AHEI scores had the strongest correlation to hs-CRP (R= -0.258). From the surgery time-point to the study end, during weight maintenance, the e-DII scores had the strongest correlation to IL-6 (R=0.3932), and the DII scores had the strongest correlation to hs-CRP (0.1741). Conclusion The associations in this study were weak, and several results were unanticipated. Out of all three dietary scores, the e-DII was most strongly associated with IL-6, and the AHE was most strongly associated with hs-CRP. It would be worthwhile to replicate these methods on a trial of a larger size and lower IL-6 detection range kit, and to see if these results would be replicated or if stronger correlations could be found.