Mediterranean diet, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, and Pro-vegetarian dietary pattern in relation to the risk of basal cell carcinoma: a nested case-control study within the Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra (SUN) cohort

Abstract

Background: The association of dietary pattern with the risk of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is little understood and has scarcely been investigated. Objectives: We assessed the association of several complete dietary patterns [Mediterranean, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), and Pro-vegetarian dietary pattern] with the risk of BCC, conducting a nested case-control study (4 controls for each case). Methods: Cases and controls were selected from the SUN

(Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra) cohort using risk set sam- pling. Cases were identified among subjects free of skin cancer at

baseline but who later reported a physician-made BCC diagnosis during the follow-up period. In the cohort we identified 101 incident cases of BCC. Results: In multivariable-adjusted conditional logistic regression analyses, better adherence to the Mediterranean diet (highest compared with lowest quintile) was associated with a 72% relative reduction in the odds of BCC (OR: 0.28; 95% CI: 0.10, 0.77; Ptrend = 0.014); the DASH diet was associated with a 68% RR reduction (OR: 0.32; 95% CI: 0.14, 0.76; Ptrend = 0.013) for the comparison between extreme quintiles. No association was found between a Pro-vegetarian dietary pattern and BCC. Higher fruit consumption (highest compared with lowest quintile, OR: 0.27; 95% CI: 0.11, 0.64; Ptrend < 0.001) and low-fat dairy products (OR: 0.39; 95% CI: 0.16, 0.92; Ptrend = 0.014) were associated with a lower BCC risk. Conclusions: Our results suggest that Mediterranean and DASH dietary patterns may be associated with a lower risk of BCC, but confirmatory studies are required.