Background: The sweetener aspartame received regulatory approval for use in carbonated beverages 30 years ago, but debate continues over its safety. Only two prospective studies have examined the relationship between artificially-sweetened beverages and incidence of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), with one study finding no association and the other suggesting possible increased risk.

Objective: We examined the associations of consumption of artificially- and sugar- sweetened carbonated beverages and total aspartame intake with risk of incident NHL, overall and by major histologic subtypes in the Cancer Prevention Study-II (CPS-II) Nutrition Cohort.

Methods: Included in this analysis were 100,442 men and women, average age 69.2 (SD ± 6.1) years. Participants reported consumption of diet and regular soda in 1999 and 2003, in addition to information on medical history, lifestyle and anthropometric factors. During a 10 year follow-up, 1,196 self-reported NHL cases were verified through medical record or state cancer registry linkage. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate multivariable-adjusted relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI).

Results: Average daily consumption of diet and regular soda at baseline was less than a half serving/day. In men and women combined, we observed no association between consumption of one or more servings/day of diet (RR=0.92, 95% CI 0.73, 1.17, p trend=0.14) or regular (RR=1.10, 95 % CI 0.77, 1.58, p trend=0.62) soda and total NHL risk, compared to no consumption (p heterogeneity by sex>0.1); both models controlled for consumption of the other beverage. Aspartame intake was not associated with NHL risk (RR=1.02, 95% CI 0.84, 1.24 p trend=0.69, comparing top to bottom quintile of intake). Associations with NHL subtypes (multiple myeloma, DLBCL, CLL/SLL, follicular, other B cell lymphoma) were similarly null except for an inverse trend for consumption of artificially sweetened soda with risk of multiple myeloma (RR=0.70, 95% CI 0.42, 1.17 for 5+ servings/week vs. none, p trend=0.05).

Conclusion: In this cohort of older men and women, daily consumption of artificially- or sugar- sweetened sodas is not associated with increased risk of NHL. Further research in younger cohorts is needed to examine associations with higher amounts of consumption.

Citation Format: Marjorie L. McCullough, Lauren Teras, Roma Shah, Ryan Diver, Mia M. Gaudet, Susan M. Gapstur. Consumption of artificially and sugar-sweetened carbonated beverages and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoid neoplasms: The Cancer Prevention Study-II Nutrition Cohort. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research; 2013 Oct 27-30; National Harbor, MD. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Can Prev Res 2013;6(11 Suppl): Abstract nr A45.

©2013 American Association for Cancer Research.
2013