Some dietary factors could be involved as co-factors in cervical carcinogenesis but evidence is inconclusive. There is no data about the effect of fruits and vegetables intake (F&V) on cervical cancer from cohort studies. We examined the association between the intake of F&V and selected nutrients and the incidence of carcinoma in-situ (CIS) and invasive squamous cervical cancer (ISC) in a prospective study of 299,649 women, participating in the European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI).A calibration study was used to control measurement errors in the dietary questionnaire.After a mean of 9 years of follow-up, 253 ISC and 817 CIS cases were diagnosed. In the calibrated model, we observed a statistically significant inverse association of ISC with a daily increase in intake of 100g of total fruits (HR 0.83; 95%CI 0.72-0.98) and a statistically nonsignificant inverse association with a daily increase in intake of 100 g of total vegetables (HR 0.85: 95%CI 0.65-1.10). Statistically nonsignificant inverse associations were also observed for leafy vegetables, root vegetables, garlic and onions, citrus fruits, vitamin C, vitamin E, and retinol for ISC. No association was found regarding beta-carotene, vitamin D and folic acid for ISC. None of the dietary factors examined were associated with CIS. Our study suggests a possible protective role of fruit intake and other dietary factors on ISC, that need to be confirmed on a larger number of ISC cases.

PMID: 20853322 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] Source: National Library of Medicine.