Association of dietary manganese intake and the <i>IL1R1</i> rs3917225 polymorphism with thyroid cancer risk: a prospective cohort study in Korea

Dietary Mn intake may have a beneficial effect in reducing cancer risk; however, its association with thyroid cancer (TC) risk remains inadequately understood. Additionally, Mn was associated with inflammation markers. Thus, we examined whether dietary Mn intake emerges a protective role against TC and whether this preventative effect has an interaction with <i>IL1 receptor type 1 (IL1R1)</i> rs3917225. The prospective study was designed at National Cancer Center in Korea between October 2007 and December 2020 including 17 754 participants. We identified TC cases by following participants until December 2020. Mn intake was collected using a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire (SQFFQ). Genotyping was performed to determine <i>IL1R1</i> rs3917225. The hazard ratios (HR) and 95 % confidence interval (CI) were calculated with a Cox proportional hazards model. We ascertained 108 incident TC cases throughout follow-up duration. Dietary Mn intake was found to be inversely associated with TC risk (HR (95 % CI)=0·64 (0·44, 0·95)). However, <i>IL1R1</i> rs3917225 seemed to modify this association; the protective effect was limited to G-allele carriers (HR = 0·30 (0·11, 0·86), <i>P</i> interaction=0·028). A higher dietary Mn was suggested to be a protective factor against TC. Additionally, we drew a potential biological interaction between Mn intake and <i>IL1R1</i> rs3917225 with a greater effect among individuals with a minor allele. This implies that when considering the cancer-preventive role of Mn, it is important to account for the influence of inflammatory gene participation.