{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,3]],"date-time":"2026-04-03T06:12:00Z","timestamp":1775196720564,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":26,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,28]],"date-time":"2026-03-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1774656000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000054","name":"National Cancer Institute","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["U01 CA272977-01"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["U01 CA272977-01"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000054","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000057","name":"National Institute for General Medical Sciences","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["P20 GM155896"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["P20 GM155896"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000057","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Nutrients"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Objectives: The study aimed to examine the association between a dietary index for gut microbiota (DI-GM) and the risk of incident colorectal cancer (CRC). Clarifying the role of diet-induced alterations in the composition and function of gut microbiota on the development of CRC can contribute to prevention efforts. Methods: Participants from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening trial enrolled in the intervention arm and who completed baseline assessments were included in the analysis (n = 55,685). The DI-GM is a literature-derived index used to score diet quality in terms of maintaining healthy gut microbiota. A time-dependent Cox model stratified by follow-up years (&lt;5 and \u22655 person-years) was used to evaluate the relationships between the dietary patterns and risk of incident CRC. Results: A total of 735 incident CRC were identified over 650,470 person-years of follow-up. During &lt; 5 years of follow-up, those with higher diet quality (DI-GM scores above 67th percentile) had an 18% lower risk of incident CRC (HRadjusted = 0.82, 95% CI: 0.63, 1.07) compared with those with lower diet quality (DI-GM scores below the 67th percentile), though effect estimates were imprecise. During \u2265 5 years of follow-up, there was no association between incident CRC and DI-GM (HRadjusted = 1.01, 95% CI: 0.80, 1.26). Conclusions: Diet quality measured using the DI-GM was associated with the risk of CRC in the first five years of follow-up in a large prospective cohort study. A diet that enhances the composition and function of gut microbiota may contribute to reduction in CRC risk.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/nu18071088","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,30]],"date-time":"2026-03-30T09:57:24Z","timestamp":1774864644000},"page":"1088","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Association Between the Dietary Index for Gut Microbiota (DI-GM) and Colorectal Cancer in the PLCO Cohort"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"given":"Bezawit E.","family":"Kase","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7022-0178","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Angela D.","family":"Liese","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jiajia","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Elizabeth Angela","family":"Murphy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathology, Microbiology & Immunology, School of Medicine Columbia, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29209, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3201-9537","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Susan E.","family":"Steck","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"91","DOI":"10.1159\/000543921","article-title":"Colorectal Cancer: Epidemiology, Risk Factors, and Public Health Strategies","volume":"106","author":"Matsuda","year":"2025","journal-title":"Digestion"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4053","DOI":"10.3748\/wjg.v28.i30.4053","article-title":"Gut microbiota, inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer","volume":"28","author":"Quaglio","year":"2022","journal-title":"World J. 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