Analysis of Dietary Patterns Containing Curcumin and Oral Cancer.

PURPOSE: This study aims to: (1) quantify the association between dietary intake of curcumin-containing foods (oranges and carrots) and the risk of oral cancer using NHANES data; (2) identify the consumption frequency threshold associated with reduced oral cancer risk; and (3) evaluate the predictive performance of a model incorporating curcumin-related dietary factors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study is based on the 2003-2004 cycle data of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) in the United States, and a total of 2762 research subjects were included. Multiple statistical methods were comprehensively employed, including descriptive statistics to present differences in demographic characteristics and lifestyles, correlation analysis to measure the degree of association between variables, logistic regression analysis to identify the independent association between dietary intake of curcumin and the risk of oral cancer, trend test to determine whether there is a significant linear trend between dietary intake of curcumin and the risk of oral cancer, 3D bubble chart to visually display the interaction effect of the frequency of intake of two types of foods on the risk of oral cancer, SHAP-value analysis to quantify the influence of features on model output, confusion matrix and ROC curve to evaluate model performance, and a comprehensive analysis of the role of dietary intake of curcumin-containing foods in the onset of oral cancer. RESULTS: The results show that there are significant differences between the oral cancer group and the non-oral cancer group in terms of social economic status, lifestyle, and dietary intake of curcumin-containing foods. Social economic disadvantage may be associated with an increased risk of oral cancer, and the proportion of not consuming curcumin-containing foods is higher in the oral cancer group. Correlation analysis indicates that education level, poverty-income ratio, and dietary intake of foods containing curcumin such as oranges and carrots are negatively correlated with oral cancer, while smoking and drinking have positive correlations. Logistic regression analysis reveals that occasional consumption of oranges, frequent consumption of oranges, etc., rich in curcumin, are associated with the risk of oral cancer. Trend test analysis shows that as the frequency of intake of oranges and carrots increases, the proportion of oral cancer cases decreases (all p-values are all less than 0.01), indicating a statistically significant negative correlation between the frequency of intake and the prevalence of oral cancer. Interaction analysis shows that high-frequency intake of oranges or carrots is associated with a lower risk of oral cancer, and high-frequency intake of both is associated with a lower risk, while low-frequency intake of both is associated with a higher risk. SHAP-value analysis highlights the key role of dietary intake of curcumin-containing foods in the model, with the weighted precision rate, recall rate, and F1 score of the model all above 0.96, indicating strong predictive ability for both sample types. The ROC curve verifies that the model AUC reaches 0.89, demonstrating good predictive performance and the ability to effectively identify high-risk individuals for oral cancer. CONCLUSION: Dietary conditions containing curcumin are closely related to the risk of oral cancer and can serve as a potential predictive indicator. For clinical practice, we suggest that regular consumption of curcumin-containing foods (oranges or carrots ≥3 times per week, corresponding to an estimated daily curcumin intake of 20-40 mg) may be beneficial for oral cancer prevention. For future research, prospective cohort studies with quantitative dietary assessment and pharmacokinetic studies on curcumin bioavailability are needed to validate these findings.