Consumption of raw cruciferous vegetables is inversely associated with bladder cancer risk

Cruciferous vegetables contain isothiocyanates, which show potent chemopreventive activity against bladder cancer in both in vitro and in vivo studies. However, previous epidemiologic studies investigating cruciferous vegetable intake and bladder cancer risk have been inconsistent. Cooking can substantially reduce or destroy isothiocyanates, and could account for study inconsistencies. In this hospital-based case-control study involving 275 individuals with incident, primary bladder cancer and 825 individuals without cancer, we examined the usual prediagnostic intake of raw and cooked cruciferous vegetables in relation to bladder cancer risk. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated with unconditional logistic regression, adjusting for smoking and other bladder cancer risk factors. We observed a strong and statistically significant inverse association between bladder cancer risk and raw cruciferous vegetable intake (adjusted OR for highest versus lowest category = 0.64; 95% CI, 0.42-0.97), with a significant trend (P = 0.003); there were no significant associations for fruit, total vegetables, or total cruciferous vegetables. The associations observed for total raw crucifers were also observed for individual raw crucifers. The inverse association remained significant among current and heavy smokers with three or more servings per month of raw cruciferous vegetables (adjusted ORs, 0.46 and 0.60; 95% CI, 0.23-0.93 and 0.38-0.93, respectively). These data suggest that cruciferous vegetables, when consumed raw, may reduce the risk of bladder cancer, an effect consistent with the role of dietary isothiocyanates as chemopreventive agents against bladder cancer.