Consumption of fruit and vegetables and risk of lung cancer: A case-control study in Galicia, Spain

Received 6 September 2007; accepted 10 January 2008. published online 04 March 2008.

Abstract

Objective

We analyzed the effect of fruit and vegetable intake on lung cancer risk in a population in northwest Spain.

Methods

We analyzed data from a hospital-based case-control study including 295 histologically confirmed cases and 322 controls. Controls were patients attending the hospital for minor surgery. There was a minimum age limit of 35 y and sampling was carried out on a sex-frequency basis.

Results

After adjustment for sex, age, tobacco use, and occupation, no protective effect of overall consumption of fruit was present (odds ratio 1.49, 95% confidence interval 0.81–2.73). Green leafy vegetables conferred a protective effect (odds ratio 0.50, 95% confidence interval 0.30–0.83).

Conclusion

These findings indicate that green leafy vegetables, rather than fruit, might have a genuine protective effect against lung cancer.

Keywords: Case-control study, Lung neoplasms, Diet, Fruit, Vegetables

a Galician Public Foundation for Health Emergencies–061, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

b Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health. University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

c Galician Agency for Health Technology Assessment, Galician Health Service, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

d CIBER de Epidemiología y Salud Pública, CIBERESP, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

e Preventive Medicine Unit, Santiago de Compostela University Teaching Hospital, Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Corresponding author. Tel.: +34-981-581237; fax: +34-981-572282.

This work has been funded in part by grant FIS 92/0176 from the Spanish Ministry of Health and grants XUGA 91010 and XUGA 92100 from the Regional Authority on Research.

PII: S0899-9007(08)00011-7

doi:10.1016/j.nut.2008.01.005

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