Researchers from the University of Hawaii Cancer Center conducted a study with the goal of understanding how fruits and vegetables impact the risk of developing cancer. When it comes to bladder cancer, the study indicated that a higher intake of fruits and vegetables may reduce risk, but only in women.
Researchers analyzed data from 185,855 older adults who were involved in the Multiethnic Cohort Study over a 12.5 year period. During that time, 152 females and 429 males developed bladder cancer.
Researchers concluded that women reporting higher yellow-orange vegetable intake were 52% less likely to develop invasive bladder cancer compared to women with the lowest consumption of those vegetables. The highest consumption of vitamins A, C and E was associated with the lowest likelihood of developing bladder cancer. However, males in the study were not impacted by vegetable consumption when it came to risk of bladder cancer.
While researchers aimed to better understand how vegetables impact risk of cancer, this study does not explain why fruit and vegetables impacted the subjects in this way, or why only females saw decreased risks.
ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross adds, Although this is a fairly large, prospective analysis, it s still observational and therefore, there is no basis to claim that it proves that consuming fruits and vegetables will result in fewer cases of bladder cancer. However, that does not negate the importance of ensuring that fruits and vegetables are a part of your diet.
