title: Diet diversity and the risk of oral and pharyngeal cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Diet diversity has been recommended to achieve a healthy diet and prevent cancer.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The relation between diet diversity (i.e., variety in food intake computed as the total number of foods consumed at least once per week) and the risk of oral and pharyngeal cancer was investigated using data from a multicentric case-control study carried out between 1991 and 2005 in Italy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cases were 805 patients with histologically confirmed incident cancers of the oral cavity and pharynx, and controls were 2,081 patients admitted for acute, non-neoplastic diseases, unrelated to tobacco or alcohol consumption.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A significant inverse association was observed with total diet diversity. The multivariate odds ratio (OR), adjusted for education, tobacco and alcohol, was 0.78 (95% confidence interval, CI 0.61-0.98) for subjects in the highest tertile of diversity. Inverse relations were found also for diversity within vegetables (OR = 0.62; 95% CI 0.49-0.78) and fruits (OR = 0.67; 95% CI 0.53-0.86).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study suggests that a more diversified, and particularly a diet varied in vegetables and fruit, is a favourable indicator of oral and pharyngeal cancer risk, independently from the major recognised risk factors, i.e. alcohol and tobacco consumption.
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Garavello
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Giordano
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bosetti
authors.forename: Renato
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Talamini
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Negri
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tavani
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Maisonneuve
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Franceschi
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: La Vecchia
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004032:Diet; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D005638:Fruit; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010610:Pharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects; D014675:Vegetables