Women With Antioxidant-Rich Diets Had Far Lower Cervical Cancer Rates, Study Finds

Women with antioxidant-rich diets had a strikingly lower prevalence of cervical cancer, according to a nationwide US analysis published in the International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics. Cervical cancer is usually linked to persistent infection with a high-risk strain of human papillomavirus (HPV), a common sexually transmitted virus, but infection alone does not determine who develops the disease, leaving researchers looking for other factors that shape the years between infection and cancer.

The study used National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data collected from 2003 to 2018, comparing 174 women with a history of cervical cancer to 870 matched women without the disease. Instead of tracking single vitamins, researchers used the Composite Dietary Antioxidant Index (CDAI), which combines reported intake of vitamins A, C and E, carotenoids, zinc and selenium into one score.

Each one-point rise in CDAI was associated with an 11.4% lower prevalence of cervical cancer after accounting for other influences. Women in the highest third of CDAI scores had a 55.8% lower prevalence than those in the lowest third. One possible explanation involves oxidative stress: unstable molecules called reactive oxygen species, produced during infection and inflammation, can damage DNA and cell membranes if they build up faster than the body can clear them, and antioxidants help neutralize these molecules.

The researchers cautioned that the study cannot establish cause and effect, since diet and cancer history were assessed at roughly the same time and some women may have changed their eating habits after diagnosis. Cancer history was self-reported, and dietary intake was based on a 24-hour recall that may not reflect long-term eating patterns. "These findings suggest that dietary antioxidant intake may play a potential role in the prevention of cervical cancer," the authors wrote. "However, further prospective studies are needed to confirm this association and clarify the underlying mechanisms."