Selected food intake and risk of vulvar cancer

A case-control study was conducted to analyze the association between body mass, selected indicator food intake, and vulvar cancer risk.

The patients included in this report were 125 women aged 80 years or younger with histologically confirmed diagnosis of invasive vulvar cancer who were admitted to a network of general and teaching hospitals in the greater Milan area. Control subjects were 541 patients admitted to teaching and general hospitals in Milan for acute conditions.

The risk of vulvar cancer was inversely related to green vegetable and carrot consumption, the corresponding multivariate relative risks for lowest versus highest levels of intake being 2.0 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2-3.4) and 1.4 (95% CI, 0.9-2.2). The trend in risk was significant for green vegetables. No consistent association emerged between milk, meat, liver, alcohol and coffee consumption and risk of vulvar cancer. In comparison with leaner women, the relative risks of vulvar cancer were 1.8, 1.9, 2.8, and 2.9 in progressively higher quintiles of the body mass index, and the trend in risk was significant.

These data indicate that the risk of vulvar cancer is related to a number of nutritional and dietary factors. This is of particular interest, because vulvar cancer is a relatively rare neoplasm, whose etiology is still poorly understood, and on which only a few epidemiologic studies have been conducted.