Table 4.

Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for serum metabolites^* independently associated with primary incident liver cancer or liver disease mortality over 27 years of follow-up in a nested case-control study from the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention cohort

Metabolite	Order entered	Model entry P†	Mutually adjusted OR (95 % CI)‡	Mutually adjusted P‡,†
Liver cancer (n = 221 cases; n = 221 controls)
Glycocholic acid	1	<.001	2.80 (1.32 to 5.91)	.007
Leu-val	2	<.001	0.30 (0.15 to 0.61)	<.001
Hypoxanthine	3	<.001	0.32 (0.14 to 0.69)	.004
LysoPC(18:2)	4	.004	0.33 (0.16 to 0.69)	.003
LysoPC(15:0)	5	.003	0.26 (0.11 to 0.65)	.004
Liver disease mortality (n = 242 cases; n = 242 controls)
Glycochenodeoxycholic acid	1	<.001	4.49 (2.20 to 9.16)	<.001
LysoPC(18:2)	2	<.001	0.28 (0.13 to 0.61)	.001
Serotonin	3	<.001	0.34 (0.19 to 0.62)	<.001
Trigonelline	4	.005	0.37 (0.18 to 0.75)	.006

^*ORs for cases and matched controls are scaled to compare the 90th to the 10th percentile of metabolite values (modeled on a continuous basis) based on the distribution in the controls; letting X₉₀ and X₁₀ denote the 90th percentile and 10th percentile in controls, and β denote the log(OR) from the conditional logistic regression model, the OR is e^{β(X90−X10)}. CI = confidence interval; Leu-val = leucyl-valine; LysoPC = lysophosphatidylcholine; OR = odds ratio.

^† P value for χ² test obtained from conditional logistic regression model for a given metabolite (modeled on a continuous basis); all tests were two-sided.

^‡Models adjusted for entry age (years), body mass index (kg/m²), smoking intensity (cigarettes/day), smoking duration (years), alcohol intake (none, <11.6 g/day, ≥11.6 g/day, or missing), self-reported diabetes status (yes or no), education (≤ or > elementary education), run order, and all other metabolites previously in model.