The relationship of dietary and serum vitamin A to the occurrence of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia in sexually active women.

Sexually active women with colposcopically directed, biopsy-proved cervical intraepithelial neoplasia were matched with normal control subjects with regard to age, race, and socioeconomic status, in order to determine if dietary and serum vitamin A (retinol) levels can be considered one of the contributing risk factors for the development of this disease process. An evaluation of women in the group with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia statistically showed lower levels of serum vitamin A (p = 0.1), although, dietary profiles of both groups did not yield a statistically significant difference (p = 0.7). These results suggest that low serum levels of vitamin A may be associated with the development of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia.