Diet quality is associated with primary melanoma thickness

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Nutritional Science
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Dietary patterns significantly impact outcomes for many cancers.
• The specific influence of diet quality on melanoma prognosis remained largely uncharacterized.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between prediagnosis diet quality and primary melanoma tumor thickness.
• Tumor thickness is a critical prognostic indicator in melanoma.

Main Methods:

• Utilized baseline data from 634 patients diagnosed with stage Ib to IV cutaneous melanoma.
• Assessed diet quality using the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) via food intake questionnaires.
• Employed Poisson regression to calculate adjusted prevalence ratios (PRadj) for associations between HEI scores and melanoma thickness.

Main Results:

• 38% of patients were diagnosed with melanomas exceeding 2 mm in thickness.
• Patients with the highest HEI scores had a significantly lower likelihood of being diagnosed with thick melanoma (PRadj 0.93, 95% CI 0.86-0.99).
• No significant effect modification was observed based on age, sex, prior melanoma history, or comorbidities.

Conclusions:

• Prediagnosis diet quality is significantly associated with melanoma tumor thickness at diagnosis.
• Higher adherence to healthy dietary guidelines may be a protective factor against thicker melanomas.