A high intake of dietary antioxidant compounds has been hypothesized to
be an appropriate strategy to reduce gastric cancer (GC) development. We
investigated the effect of dietary total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in
relation to GC in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer
(EPIC) study including 23 centers in 10 European countries. A total of
521,457 subjects (153,447 men) aged mostly 3570 years old, were
recruited largely between 1992 and 1998. Ferric reducing antioxidant
potential (FRAP) and total radical-trapping antioxidant parameter
(TRAP), measuring reducing and chain-breaking antioxidant capacity were
used to measure dietary TAC from plant foods. Dietary antioxidant intake
is associated with a reduction in the risk of GC for both FRAP (adjusted
HR 0.66; 95%CI (0.460.95) and TRAP (adjusted HR 0.61; 95%CI (0.430.87)
(highest vs. lowest quintile). The association was observed for both
cardia and noncardia cancers. A clear effect was observed in smokers
with a significant reduction in GC risk for the fifth quintile of intake
for both assays (highest vs. lowest quintile: adjusted HR 0.41; 95%CI
(0.220.76) p for trend <0.001 for FRAP; adjusted HR 0.52; 95%CI
(0.280.97) p for trend <0.001 for TRAP) but not in nonsmokers. In former
smokers, the association with FRAP intake was statistically significant
(highest vs. lowest quintile: adjusted HR 0.4; 95%CI (0.210.75) p <
0.05); no association was observed for TRAP. Dietary antioxidant
capacity intake from different sources of plant foods is associated with
a reduction in the risk of GC