title: International pooled study on diet and bladder cancer: the bladder cancer, epidemiology and nutritional determinants (BLEND) study: design and baseline characteristics.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In 2012, more than 400,000 urinary bladder cancer cases occurred worldwide, making it the 7(th) most common type of cancer. Although many previous studies focused on the relationship between diet and bladder cancer, the evidence related to specific food items or nutrients that could be involved in the development of bladder cancer remains inconclusive. Dietary components can either be, or be activated into, potential carcinogens through metabolism, or act to prevent carcinogen damage.
  
  
  METHODS
  The BLadder cancer, Epidemiology and Nutritional Determinants (BLEND) study was set up with the purpose of collecting individual patient data from observational studies on diet and bladder cancer. In total, data from 11,261 bladder cancer cases and 675,532 non-cases from 18 case-control and 6 cohort studies from all over the world were included with the aim to investigate the association between individual food items, nutrients and dietary patterns and risk of developing bladder cancer.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The substantial number of cases included in this study will enable us to provide evidence with large statistical power, for dietary recommendations on the prevention of bladder cancer.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Surgical Specialties, Radiological Sciences and Public Health, Section of Public Health and Human Sciences, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Medical Epidemiology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden ; Department of Research, Cancer Registry of Norway, Institute of Population-Based Cancer Research, Oslo, Norway ; Genetic Epidemiology Group, Folkhälsan Research Center, Helsinki, Finland ; Department of Community Medicine, University of Tromsø, The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway.
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authors.affiliation: Division of Nutritional Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
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authors.affiliation: Departments of Epidemiology, UCLA Center for Environmental Genomics, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA USA.
authors.forename: Zuo-Feng
authors.initials: ZF
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of General Practice, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, ACHG-KU Leuven, Kapucijnenvoer 33, Blok J, bus 7001, 3000 Leuven, Belgium ; CAPHRI School for Public Health and Primary Care, University of Maastricht, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Frank
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authors.lastname: Buntinx
authors.affiliation: NUTRIM School for Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism, University of Maastricht, Maastricht, The Netherlands ; CAPHRI School for Public Health and Primary Care, University of Maastricht, Maastricht, The Netherlands ; School of Cancer Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
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keywords: Bladder cancer; Diet; Pooled analysis; Risk