Background: Despite many epidemiological studies on the effects of dietary antioxidant micronutrients on risk of cervical cancer, the findings remain uncertain and little evidence is available for serum nutrient markers. The present study aimed to examine the relationship between serum carotenoid, retinol and tocopherol concentrations and risk of cervical cancer among Chinese women.
Materials and methods: We conducted a hospital-based case- control study in which 358 adults (158 incident cases and 200 controls) were recruited from Xinjiang, China. Serum levels of carotenoids (α-carotene, β-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin, lycopene and lutein/zeaxanthin), retinol, and tocopherols (α-tocopherol and γ-tocopherol) were assessed by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography.
Results: We found inverse associations between serum carotenoid (α-carotene, β-carotene, and lutein/zeaxanthin) and tocopherol (α-tocopherol) concentrations and the risk of cervical cancer after adjusting for potential confounders, but a null association for retinol. The ORs for 1-SD increase were 0.71 (95% CI: 0.56- 0.92; p=0.003) for total carotenoids and 0.75 (95% CI: 0.60-0.94; p=0.008) for total tocopherols.
Conclusions: These results show that higher serum concentrations of some carotenoids and tocopherols are associated with a lower risk of cervical cancer among Chinese women.