Serum Carotenoid, Retinol and Tocopherol Concentrations and Risk of Cervical Cancer among Chinese Women

Background: Despite many epidemiological studies on the effects of dietary antioxidant micronutrients on riskof cervical cancer, the findings remain uncertain and little evidence is available for serum nutrient markers. Thepresent study aimed to examine the relationship between serum carotenoid, retinol and tocopherol concentrationsand risk of cervical cancer among Chinese women. Materials and
Methods: We conducted a hospital-based casecontrolstudy 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 liquidchromatography.
Results: We found inverse associations between serum carotenoid (α-carotene, β-carotene, andlutein/zeaxanthin) and tocopherol (α-tocopherol) concentrations and the risk of cervical cancer after adjustingfor 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 witha lower risk of cervical cancer among Chinese women.