diet and risk of lymphoid neoplasms and soft tissue sarcomas the relationship between frequency of intake of selected indicator foods lymphoid neoplasms and soft tissue sarcomas was investigated in an updated casecontrol study conducted in northern italy between 1983 and 1992 on 158 incident histologically confirmed cases of hodgkins disease hd 429 cases of nonhodgkins lymphoma nhl 141 cases of multiple myelomas 101 cases of soft tissue sarcomas and 1157 controls admitted to hospital for acute nonneoplastic diseases unrelated to longterm modifications of diet compared with the lowest tertile the odds ratio or for the highest tertile of milk intake was 18 for nhl and 19 for sarcomas liver intake was an indicator of the risk of hd or 18 nhl or 16 and myelomas or 20 ham an indicator of hd or 17 and butter an indicator of myelomas or 28 a high consumption of green vegetables was inversely related to myelomas or 04 and frequent use of wholegrain foods was inversely related to nhl or 04 and soft tissue sarcomas or 02 no material association with meat was observed for any of the neoplasms considered likewise coffee and alcohol intakes were not associated with lymphoid neoplasms and soft tissue sarcomas the or for the highest tertile of intake of betacarotene ranged between 05 and 07 whereas the or for retinol ranged between 15 and 23 although available data do not point to any specific inference this study suggests that certain aspects of diet are a correlate or an indicator of the risk of lymphoid neoplasms and soft tissue sarcomas