Does high intake of fruit and vegetables improve lung cancer survival?

SummaryThe objective of the study was to examine the prognostic effect of dietary intake of fruit and vegetables on lung cancer patients. We used data on 57,053 participants in the Danish prospective cohort study, ‘Diet, Cancer and Health’. Patients in whom lung cancer was diagnosed constituted the final study cohort and were followed from the date of diagnosis until the date of death or 11 March 2004. A total of 353 participants had lung cancer. Increasing levels of intake of fruit and vegetables show a tendency toward decreased hazard of dying: the Cox proportional hazard model estimated a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.84 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.59–1.21) for high intake of vegetables by current smokers and an HR of 0.81 (95% CI, 0.58–1.15) for high intake of fruits with low intake as the reference. In contrast, high intake of potatoes increased the hazard of dying (HR, 1.51; 95% CI, 1.12–2.23). Our study suggests that high intake of fruit and vegetables might have a favourable effect on the prognosis of lung cancer patients, but a high intake of potatoes appears to increase the hazard of dying.