FRUIT AND VEGETABLE CONSUMPTION AND CANCER MORTALITY IN THE CAERPHILLY STUDY

We investigated whether the consumption of fruit and vegetables lowere d cancer mortality in a cohort of 2112 Welsh men ages 45-69 years (The Caerphilly Study), which was followed-up for 13.8 years. At baseline (between 1979 and 1983), participants completed a 56-item food frequen cy questionnaire from which the consumption of fruit and vegetables wa s calculated. Relative risks (RR) were estimated with Cox proportional hazard analysis, with death from various types of cancer as a depende nt variable, and fruit, vegetables, vitamin C, p-carotene, dietary fib er, and potential confounders as independent variables. Mean consumpti on of vegetables and fruit at baseline was 118 g/day and 83 g/day, res pectively. During follow-up 114 men died from cancer, including 51 men who died from respiratory tract cancer and 45 men who died from diges tive tract cancer. Fruit consumption and the intake of dietary fiber w ere inversely related to respiratory tract cancer, but after adjustmen t for potential confounders including age, smoking, and social class, the association with fruit consumption became nonsignificant. Vegetabl e and fruit consumption was, independently from other risk factors, in versely related to mortality from cancer of the digestive tract (P for trend = 0.021), mainly due to an inverse association with fruit consu mption (RR for the highest quartile versus the lowest was 0.3; 95% CI, 0.1-0.8). Vitamin C, beta-carotene, and dietary fiber were not signif icantly associated with cancers of the digestive tract. Vegetable and fruit consumption was also inversely related to all-cause cancer morta lity, and the strongest association was observed for fruit consumption (RR in the highest versus lowest quartile was 0.5; 95% CI, 0.3-1.0). Consumption of vegetables and particularly the consumption of fruit co uld considerably lower the risk of dying from cancer in middle-aged me n.