Mapping Global Dietary Risk Factors for Cancer: A Structured Network-Based Analysis

Understanding the complex relationship between diet and cancer remains a critical challenge in global health research. Traditional studies have often examined isolated dietary components or focused on region-specific dietary patterns, limiting the ability to identify broader, population-level associations. In this study, a comprehensive global-scale analysis was conducted to investigate the associations between 16 dietary components and the incidence of total and subtype-specific cancers across 155 countries or regions. By integrating harmonized dietary exposure data and epidemiological records, and applying a network-based analytical framework, the study reveals both established and underexplored associations, such as the positive relationships between red meat and alcohol intake with overall cancer risk, and the inverse correlations between pulses and multiple cancer subtypes. Beyond individual associations, this study identifies interdependent dietary interaction patterns, highlighting synergistic and antagonistic effects that are often masked in conventional univariate models. The work also exemplifies how macro association (MA) networks can be constructed and dissected at a small scale to extract interpretable modules, offering a methodological foundation for broader, multi-domain MA network development. The resulting findings provide a translational basis for targeted dietary guidance and illustrate the potential of network-based approaches in advancing nutritional oncology research.