Fig. 4.
Relationship between concentrations of serum fatty acid levels and lipid metabolites shown to be associated with colorectal cancer risk in the EPIC cohort (n = 461 controls). ITFA, industrial trans fatty acid; MUFA, monounsaturated fatty acid; NTFA, natural trans fatty acid; PC ae, acylakyl-phosphatidylcholine; PUFA, polyunsaturated fatty acid; SFA, saturated fatty acid; SM (OH), Hydroxysphingomyelin. Beta difference and 95% confidence intervals obtained from multivariable linear regression models for the association between a per unit increase in log-transformed serum fatty acid concentration levels (recorded as a percentage of total fatty acid levels) and lipid metabolite concentration adjusted for sex, batch, energy intake (kcal/day, continuous) (models including dietary variables only), age at blood collection, time of day at blood collection, fasting status at blood collection (yes, no, in between), education level (no schooling/primary, secondary/professional/technical, university/higher), Cambridge physical activity index (inactive, moderately inactive, moderately active, active), smoking status (never, former, current), body mass index (kg/m2, continuous), alcohol use at recruitment (g/day, continuous), dietary intakes (g/day) of red and processed meat, fibre intake and dairy. Solid circles represent an association between the specified lipid metabolite and fatty acid after correction for multiple comparisons based on the effective number of independent tests (ENT) (i.e., pENT <0.05 (ENT = 26; pENT = 0.05∗[26∗2 lipid metabolites]).