gms | German Medical Science

Introduction: Although a rare disease, uveal melanoma of the eye is the most common primary intraocular malignancy in adults. Only a few consistent risk factors have been identified for this disease. Three recent studies indicated that cooks may have an increased risk of uveal melanoma. Here we report findings of the RIFA case-control study regarding cooking and uveal melanoma risk [1], [2], [3].

Methods: We conducted a case-control study of uveal melanoma and occupational exposures. Overall, 455 cases and 827 population controls were interviewed. We classified subjects as exposed if they ever worked within the job task of cooks for at least six months or more (ISCO 68: 5-31). Furthermore we asked the subjects if they had cooked personally. If yes, we classified them as personally cooked. We used a job-specific supplementary questionnaire to obtain details of the job tasks and materials that were used.

We used conditional logistic regression models to calculate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI).

Results: Overall, 25 controls (3.0%) and 13 cases (2.8%) ever worked as cooks according to ISCO 5-31. Overall, we observed no association between cooking and the risk of uveal melanoma [cooks according to ISCO 5-31: OR 1.1 (95%CI 0.5-2.1);]. When we restricted the source population of our study to the same population as in the previous German study (population of Northrhine-Westphalia, 35-74 age), we found an increased risk for uveal melanoma [overall: OR 1.6 (95%CI 0.4-6.1; women: OR 3.4 (95%CI 0.6-19.1), men: zero cases].

Discussion: These results are in conflict with those from former studies. Potential explanations include, but are not limited to, changing exposure scenarios over time and some kind of selection bias either in the former studies or in the present one. Further analysis are planed that may give insights into potential selection effects.