Eating more fruits and vegetables may help women lower their risk of developing invasive bladder cancer, according to new research at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center.

As part of the ongoing Multiethnic Cohort Study, started in 1993, researcher Song-Yi Park and colleagues analyzed data collected fro 185,885 older adults over a period of 12 and a half years. During this period, 581 cases of invasive bladder cancer were diagnosed (152 women and 429 men).

Park and her team discovered that while consumption of fruits and vegetables was not associated with the incidence of bladder cancer in men, women who consumed the most fruits and vegetables had the lowest bladder cancer risk. In particular, women who consumed the most yellow-orange vegetables were 52 percent less likely to develop bladder cancer than those who consumed the least amount of such foods.

Further, women with the highest intake of vitamins A, C and E had the lowest risk of bladder cancer.

The team’s findings are published in the August issue of The Journal of Nutrition.