Fortnightly review: Diet and the prevention of cancer

Abstract

Methods This review has been prompted by the recent publication of two reports, one from the Chief Medical Officer's Committee on Medical Aspects of Food (COMA) and one commissioned by the World Cancer Research Fund. 4 5 Much of the evidence used in these reports is derived from epidemiological studies. Although food intake varies greatly worldwide, crude methods are often used to assess diet and these methods incur large measurement errors which reduce estimates of relative risk.4 Furthermore, mechanisms are needed6 to take account of genetic polymorphisms that may moderate effects of a particular dietary factor in individuals. This interaction between environmental, genetic, and other factors, such as helicobacter infection in gastric cancer, has so far largely gone uninvestigated. It is presently being tested in the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer (EPIC), in which dietary information and blood is being collected from 400 000 individuals living in nine European countries,7 and in human experimental models, but both approaches need validated biomarkers of risk to be developed.8