Association of serum folate concentrations with the mortality of cancer: a prospective cohort study.

Abstract

Background: The association between serum folate concentrations and the mortality of cancer remains unclear. We aim to investigate the association of serum folate concentrations with all-cause and cause-specific mortality among American adults with cancer.

Methods: This cohort study included 4535 patients with cancer from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999 to 2016 and NHANES III (1988-1994). Death outcomes were ascertained by linkage to National Death Index records through 31 December 2019. Cox proportional hazards model and two-piecewise Cox proportional hazards model were used to calculate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals for the associations between folate concentrations and the risk of mortality.

Results: During a median follow-up of 37,792 person-years, there were 1998 all-cause deaths and 616 cancer deaths. Non-linear and L-shaped associations were observed between serum folate concentrations and the risk of all-cause and cancer mortality among patients with cancer. Notably, the mortality rates reached a plateau at 23.7 ng/mL for all-cause mortality and 23.57 ng/mL for cancer mortality. When folate levels fell below these thresholds, the risk of all-cause and cancer mortality decreased by approximately 2.1% (HR 0.979; 95% CI 0.969-0.989) and 3.6% (HR 0.964; 95% CI 0.948-0.981), respectively, with each unit increase in the folate concentration up to the thresholds.

Conclusion: Our study reveals that low serum folate concentrations are linked to an elevated risk of cancer mortality among individuals with cancer within a certain range and supplementation of folate in cancer patients to achieve specific serum folate level threshold (23.7 ng/mL) might reduce the risk of cancer mortality.