A prospective cohort study on dietary acrylamide intake and the risk for cutaneous malignant melanoma

Epidemiological studies have shown inconsistent associations between dietary acrylamide exposure and the risk for various malignancies. This is the first epidemiological study on the association between acrylamide intake and the risk for cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM). A case-cohort analysis was carried out within the prospective Netherlands Cohort Study on diet and cancer. Acrylamide intake was estimated from a food frequency questionnaire combined with acrylamide data for Dutch foods. After 17.3 years of follow-up, 501 microscopically confirmed cases of CMM were identified. There was an increased risk for CMM when dietary acrylamide was modeled as a continuous variable [hazard ratio: 1.13 (95% confidence interval: 1.01-1.26)] per 10 μg increment among men but there was no clear linear trend over the quintiles (Ptrend=0.12). No associations were observed for women. Our study provides some indications that dietary acrylamide may increase the risk for CMM in men.