Soy food intake and risk of lung cancer: Evidence from the shanghai womens health study and a meta-analysis

The authors prospectively evaluated the association of soy food intake with lung cancer risk, overall and by tumor aggressiveness, and performed a meta-analysis of published data. Included in the analysis were 71,550 women recruited into the Shanghai Womens Health Study (Shanghai, China) in 1997-2000. Usual soy food intake was assessed at baseline and reassessed during follow-up through in-person interviews. During a mean follow-up period of 9.1 years, 370 incident lung cancer cases were identified; 340 patients were lifetime never smokers. After adjustment for potential confounders, soy food intake was inversely associated with subsequent risk of lung cancer (P_trend 0.004); the hazard ratio for the highest quintile of intake compared with the lowest was 0.63 (95 confidence interval: 0.44, 0.90). This inverse association appeared predominately among women with later age at menopause (P _interaction 0.01) and for aggressive lung cancer as defined by length of survival (<12 months vs. <12 months; P_{heterogeneity} 0.057). Meta-analysis of 7 studies conducted among nonsmokers found a summary relative risk of 0.59 (95 confidence interval: 0.49, 0.71) for the highest categories of soy or isoflavone intake versus the lowest. This study suggests that soy food consumption may reduce lung cancer risk in nonsmoking women, particularly for aggressive tumors, and its effect may be modified by endogenous estrogens.