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Food intake and risk of basal cell carcinoma in an 11-year prospective study of Australian adults

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 65, pages 39–46 (2011)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objective:

Experimental studies suggest that dietary factors may influence skin cancer risk, but there have been few human studies of diet and basal cell carcinoma (BCC), the most common type of skin cancer. The objective was to prospectively investigate the association between food intake and incidence of BCC skin cancers.

Subjects/Methods:

At baseline in 1992, 1056 adults in a subtropical Australian community completed a validated food-frequency questionnaire from which we estimated the intake of 15 food groups, selected based on hypothesized associations in the literature. Between 1992 and 2002, incident, histologically confirmed BCCs were recorded in terms of number of persons newly affected by BCC, as well as BCC tumor counts.

Results:

Intakes of the food groups were not associated with the incidence of persons affected by BCC. However, there was a borderline positive association between intake of eggs and incidence of BCC tumors (highest vs lowest tertile adjusted relative risk (RR) 1.5; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.0–2.2; P for trend=0.06). A borderline inverse association with potato intake (highest vs lowest tertile RR 0.7; 95% CI: 0.4–1.0, P for trend=0.06) disappeared after exclusion of three subjects with more than 10 BCCs.

Conclusion:

Despite some suggestive evidence that egg and potato consumption may be associated with BCC tumor incidence, there are no plausible grounds for considering these as truly causal rather than chance associations. This study provides little evidence for a role of food intake in BCC prevention.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (data collection) and the World Cancer Research Fund International (data analysis).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cancer and Population Studies Group, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    J C van der Pols, M C B Hughes, T I Ibiebele & A C Green

  2. The University of Queensland, School of Population Health, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    G C Marks

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  1. J C van der Pols
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  2. M C B Hughes
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  3. T I Ibiebele
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  4. G C Marks
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  5. A C Green
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Correspondence to J C van der Pols.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Appendix A

Appendix A

Table A1

Table 3 Table a1
Full size table

Food groups consumed by participants of the Nambour skin cancer study, Australia (1992)

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van der Pols, J., Hughes, M., Ibiebele, T. et al. Food intake and risk of basal cell carcinoma in an 11-year prospective study of Australian adults. Eur J Clin Nutr 65, 39–46 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2010.229

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