Science

Julia Baudry, PhD; Karen E. Assmann, PhD; Mathilde Touvier, PhD; Benjamin Allès, PhD; Louise Seconda, MSc; Paule Latino-Martel, PhD; Khaled Ezzedine, MD, PhD; Pilar Galan, MD, PhD; Serge Hercberg, MD, PhD;
Denis Lairon, PhD; Emmanuelle Kesse-Guyot, PhD

IMPORTANCE
Although organic foods are less likely to contain pesticide residues than conventional foods, few studies have examined the association of organic food consumption with cancer risk.
OBJECTIVE
To prospectively investigate the association between organic food consumption and the risk of cancer in a large cohort of French adults.
DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
In this population- based prospective cohort study among French adult volunteers, data were included from participants with available information on organic food consumption frequency and dietary intake. For 16 products, participants reported their consumption frequency of labeled organic foods (never, occasionally, or most of the time). An organic food score was then computed (range, 0-32 points). The follow-up dates were May 10, 2009, to November 30, 2016.
MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
This study estimated the risk of cancer in association with the organic food score (modeled as quartiles) using Cox proportional hazards regression models adjusted for potential cancer risk factors.
RESULTS
Among 68946 participants (78.0% female; mean[SD] age at baseline,44.2[14.5] years), 1340 first incident cancer cases were identified during follow-up, with the most prevalent being 459 breast cancers, 180 prostate cancers, 135 skin cancers, 99 colorectal cancers, 47 non-Hodgkin lymphomas, and 15 other lymphomas. High organic food scores were inversely associated with the overall risk of cancer (hazard ratio for quartile 4 vs quartile 1, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.63-0.88; P for trend = .001; absolute risk reduction, 0.6%; hazard ratio for a 5-point increase, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.88-0.96).
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
A higher frequency of organic food consumption was associated with a reduced risk of cancer. Although the study findings need to be confirmed, promoting organic food consumption in the general population could be a promising preventive strategy against cancer.