Folate intake and the risk of oral cavity and pharyngeal cancer: a pooled analysis within the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology (INHANCE) Consortium

Background Folate, also known as vitamin B9, is a water soluble vitamin and is found naturally in green leafy vegetables, cereals, legumes and fruits. There are suggestions of an inverse association between folate intake with the risk of oral cavity and pharyngeal cancers (OPC), but most of the studies are limited in sample size with only few reporting information on the source of dietary folate. Alcohol consumption, one of the main causes of OPC, perturbs the folate metabolism by reducing folate absorption …