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Maternal diet during pregnancy and unilateral retinoblastoma

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Abstract

Purpose

Previous studies have suggested a role for parental diet in childhood cancer prevention, but there are few studies of retinoblastoma. The aim of this study was to examine the relation between maternal diet and unilateral retinoblastoma.

Methods

A case–control study of 163 unilateral RB cases and 136 controls ascertained information on maternal diet during pregnancy using a standardized food frequency questionnaire. Logistic regression was used to assess the relation between retinoblastoma and food groups and dietary patterns.

Results

We observed a negative association between retinoblastoma and intake of fruit [odds ratio (OR) 0.38, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.14–1.02]. Positive associations were seen with intake of cured meats (OR 5.07, 95 % CI 1.63–15.70) and fried foods (OR 4.89, 95 % CI 1.72–13.89). A food pattern of high fruits and vegetables and low fried food and sweets was negatively associated with disease (OR 0.75, 95 % CI 0.61–0.92).

Conclusion

Our study provides preliminary evidence that mothers who consume diets higher in fruit and lower in fried foods and cured meats during pregnancy may reduce the risk of unilateral retinoblastoma in their offspring.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Negar Omidakhsh for her help with the manuscript. This work was supported in part by Grants from NIH/NCI (RO1-CA118580), NIH/NIEHS (R03ES021643, R21ES019986), and ARRA supplement (CA-118580-03S1). Dr. Azary was supported by a Grant from the Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation/UCLA. Christina Lombardi was supported by the UCLA Career Development Program in Population-Based Cancer Prevention and Control Research (National Cancer Institute, R25CA087949).

Conflict of interest

The authors also state that there is no conflict of interest with respect to the contents of this manuscript for any individual author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, UCLA Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health, 650 Charles E. Young Drive, Box 951772, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1772, USA

    Christina Lombardi, Saeedeh Azary, Vivian Alfonso, Beate Ritz & Julia E. Heck

  2. Department of Genetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Arupa Ganguly

  3. Division of Oncology, Center for Childhood Cancer Research, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Greta R. Bunin

Authors
  1. Christina Lombardi
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  2. Arupa Ganguly
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  3. Greta R. Bunin
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  4. Saeedeh Azary
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  5. Vivian Alfonso
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  6. Beate Ritz
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  7. Julia E. Heck
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Julia E. Heck.

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Lombardi, C., Ganguly, A., Bunin, G.R. et al. Maternal diet during pregnancy and unilateral retinoblastoma. Cancer Causes Control 26, 387–397 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-014-0514-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-014-0514-z

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