Thread by @puddleg

Thread - Harvard epidemiologists want us to eat wholegrain fibre to reduce the risk of hepatocellular cancer. Correspondent points out this is small effect thrown up by multiple comparisons.
jamanetwork.com/journals/jamao…

Harvard epidemiologists strongly suggest we eat more polyunsaturated fat from seed oils and limit saturated fat. Mechanistically this is a well-understood risk factor for liver disease, so what is the association with HCC? 2/n

Singapore study, HCC - Compared to the lowest quartile, the hazard ratio for the highest quartile intake of omega 6 PUFA was 1.49 [(95% confidence interval (CI):1.08-2.07)] 3/n
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

EPIC-Europe - no association, but no stratification by PUFA subtype 4/n
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.10…

Harvard authors in NHS/HPFS - Omega-6 PUFAs (HR = 0.54, 95% CI: 0.34–0.86, Ptrend = 0.02) were inversely associated with risk of HCC. 5/n
academic.oup.com/cdn/article/3/…

The HPFS.NHS data is only an abstract, from June 2019, so we can probably expect another media blitz on this subject later this year. 6/n

And that seems to be the sum total of human epidemiology on this subject.
Animal studies continue: e.g. High-saturate-fat diet delays initiation of diethylnitrosamine-induced hepatocellular carcinoma. 7/n
researchgate.net/publication/26…