Carotenoid and vitamin intake, von Hippel-Lindau gene mutations and sporadic renal cell carcinoma

OBJECTIVE: We investigated whether dietary carotenoid and vitamin intake and supplemental vitamin use were inversely associated with RCC risk and with Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL)-gene mutations in clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC). METHODS: The Netherlands Cohort Study on diet and cancer (NLCS) includes 120,852 persons, who completed a self-administered food-frequency questionnaire in 1986. After 11.3 years of follow-up, 284 cases and a random sample of 4,095 persons (subcohort) with complete data were included in multivariable analyses using a case-cohort approach. VHL gene mutational analysis was complete for 225 cases. Rate ratios and corresponding 95% confidence intervals were estimated using Cox proportional hazard models, while adjusting for age, sex, smoking, body mass index, and a history of hypertension. RESULTS: We observed no association for dietary carotenoid and vitamin intake and RCC risk, and a somewhat increased risk with supplemental vitamin E, AD, and multivitamin use. Results were suggestive of higher RRs for alpha-carotene, beta-cryptoxanthin, folate, and supplemental vitamin C and multivitamin intake for wildtype VHL tumors compared to VHL-mutated tumors. CONCLUSIONS: There was no association of carotenoid, vitamin or supplemental vitamin intake and RCC risk. These associations should be investigated by others to confirm the current observations. AD - Department of Epidemiology, NUTRIM, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.