Intake of fruits and vegetables, carotenoids, folate, and vitamins A, C, E and risk of bladder cancer among women (United States).

OBJECTIVE

To examine the relation between fruits and vegetables, carotenoids, folate, and vitamins A, C, E and the risk of bladder cancer in a prospective study of women.

METHODS

A total of 237 incident bladder cancer cases were documented during 20 years of follow-up among 88,796 women enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study. Dietary intake was assessed by food-frequency questionnaires every two to four years and incident diagnosis of bladder cancer was ascertained every two years. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate incidence rate ratios (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for bladder cancer risk, adjusting for age, pack-years of smoking, current smoking, and total caloric intake.

RESULTS

Consumption of total fruits and vegetables was not associated with bladder cancer risk (RR = 1.08, 95% CI = 0.70-1.65, for > 5.5 compared to < 2.5 servings per day). Similarly, dietary intakes of carotenoids, folate, and vitamins A, C, E, were not related to bladder cancer risk. No association was observed between supplemental intake of multivitamins, vitamins A, C, E and bladder cancer risk.

CONCLUSIONS

We did not observe any association for fruit and vegetable consumption or vitamin intake and bladder cancer risk among women.