Associazione tra dieta e melanoma: esiste omogeneità sulla valutazione delle abitudini dietetiche degli individui?

[Autom. eng. transl.] OBJECTIVES: Cutaneous melanoma (MC) represents a significant problem in Public Health due to its high incidence and tendency to affect young subjects. Prevention aimed at risk factors, including diet, is fundamental to controlling their development. In order to learn more about this association, a systematic review of the available studies was conducted. METHODS: Through the PubMed, Ovid SP and Cochrane Library data bases, articles were researched that from January 1990 to February 2011 studied the association between diet and melanoma. The keywords used were "Diet" and "Melanoma" and studies that were not case-control or cohort were excluded. In order to observe the comparability of the selected studies, the tools used for the evaluation of the dietary intake of the various foods and nutrients potentially associated with CD have been analyzed. These tools have been investigated regarding the possibility of analyzing frequency and quantity of food and nutrient intake. RESULTS: Of the 257 articles found in PubMed, 243 in Ovid SP and 6 in the Cochrane Library, 18 studies met the inclusion criteria; for 3 of them it was not possible to recover the full text. From the analysis of the instruments used to evaluate the subjects' diet it emerges that: - all the studies used a questionnaire, mostly self-administered and non-standardized, with a number of items investigated ranging from 14 to 188, where mentioned; - the methods used for measuring the portions were both qualitative (images) and quantitative (grams, cups, spoons); - the foods included in the questionnaires vary considerably depending on the geographical area of residence of the population included in the study (Mediterranean diet, Scandinavian diet, use of vitamin supplements); - the time to which the food intake refers varies from the year preceding 4 years prior to completing the questionnaire. Plasma levels of some micronutrients were also measured in a single article. CONCLUSIONS: The review showed a high inhomogeneity in the methods used to evaluate the dietary habits of individuals in the various studies. It therefore appears evident the need to use standardized survey instruments, at least for populations residing in neighboring countries that follow the same type of diet, which allow to obtain results with greater external validity and comparable between them for a hypothetical meta-analysis. This would also allow intervention with adequate large-scale prevention programs.