Annals of Oncology Advance Access originally published online on October 23, 2006
Annals of Oncology 2007 18(2):388-392; doi:10.1093/annonc/mdl387
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© 2006 European Society for Medical Oncology
epidemiology |
Dietary intake of fruit and vegetable and lung cancer risk: a case–control study in Harbin, northeast China
1 Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche ‘Mario Negri’, Milano
2 Istituto di Statistica Medica e Biometria, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy
3 Evidence and Risk Assessment Division, Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control, Public Health Agency of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
4 Department of Epidemiology, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
* Correspondence to: Dr C. Galeone, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche "Mario Negri", Via Eritrea 62, 20157 Milan, Italy. Tel: +39-02-39014-577; Fax: +39-02-33200-231; E-mail: galeone{at}marionegri.it
Background: We studied the relationship between dietary intake of vegetables and fruit and lung cancer risk in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, northeast China, an area with a very high baseline risk of lung cancer in both sexes.
Patients and methods: We used data from a case–control study, conducted from 1987 to 1990, among 218 cases with incident, histologically confirmed lung cancer and 436 controls admitted to the same hospitals as cases with non-neoplastic, non-lung diseases unrelated to smoking and other potential risk factors for lung cancer.
Results: Compared with the lowest tertile of intake of vegetables, fruit or both, the multivariate odds ratios (ORs) for the highest tertile of intake were 0.39 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.25–0.62], 0.73 (95% CI 0.48–1.11) and 0.40 (95% CI 0.25–0.63), respectively. In particular, high intake of Chinese cabbage (OR = 0.53), chives (OR = 0 .54), carrots (OR = 0.51) and celery (OR = 0.40) was inversely associated with lung cancer. The OR was more than six-fold elevated for smokers reporting low intake of vegetables, and more than four-fold elevated for smokers reporting low intake of fruit, as compared with never smokers reporting high intake of these items.
Conclusion: In agreement with previous studies, we found an inverse relation between vegetable and fruit intake and lung cancer risk in both strata of current and never smokers.
Key words: allium vegetables, China, diet, fruit intake, lung cancer, vegetable intake
Received for publication December 21, 2005. Accepted for publication September 12, 2006.