Pizza has been accepted as one food which perhaps helps protect men against the risk of prostate cancer in North America.

But according to cancer researchers in Italy, pizza’s home territory, not much information exists about pizza-eating and risk of other sex-hormone related cancers (breast and ovarian).

Nor is much known, these researchers say in an article to be published in February 2006 European Journal of Cancer Prevention, about how pizza eating affects risk of cancer in people beyond the USA.

Using data from 4864 patients and the same number of people without cancer in three hospital-based case-control studies conducted in Italy between 1991 and 2002, they found no strong link.

People who ate one or more slices of pizza a week were counted as “regular eaters.”

“Our results do not show a relevant role of pizza on the risk of sex hormone-related cancers.,” the authors write in their summary. “The difference with selected studies from North America suggests that dietary and lifestyle correlates of pizza eating vary between different populations and social groups.”

An earlier study from this group (European Journal of Cancer Prevention. October 2004.) found that “Regular consumption of pizza, one of the most typical Italian foods, showed a reduced risk of digestive tract cancers. Pizza could however simply be an indicator of a typical Italian diet.”