News Story - Diet, Alcohol Linked to Nearly 1/3 of Cancer Cases

May 19, 2004

Kelli Bever (kelli) has sent you a news article. (Email address has not been verified.)

Personal message:

Well, theyre kind of on the right track... only have cause and effect mixed up a bit! ;)Kelli

Diet, Alcohol Linked to Nearly 1/3 of Cancer Cases

http://story.news./news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040518/hl_nm/health_cancer_diet_dc

My Mail Sign InNew User? Sign Up

News Home - Help

Welcome, Guest

Personalize News Home Page

-

Sign In

News

Tue, May 18, 2004

Search

All News

News Only

News Photos

Audio/Video

for

Advanced

News Home

Most Popular

Weather

Audio/Video

Full Coverage

Full Coverage More about Cancer

Related News StoriesDrinking soda linked to gullet cancer rise at New Scientist (May 18, 2004)

European patent for breast, ovarian cancer test revoked AFP via News (May 18, 2004)

Gene Might Trigger Leukemia, Lymphoma HealthDay via News (May 18, 2004)

Opinion Editorials'Forced optimism' at Arizona Republic (Apr 7, 2004)

A cruel cancer scare at Louisville Courier-Journal (Mar 28, 2004)

Feature ArticlesTumour diary: Waking up from the chemo sleep at BBC (May 7, 2004)

Cancer as a 'reversible disease' at Globe and Mail. (May 7, 2004)

Related Web SitesCancer.gov

oncology.com

American Cancer Society

News Resources

Providers

·

Reuters

·

AP

·

HealthDay

·

ACS News Today

·

AFP

·

CP

Services

·Daily Emails

·Free News Alerts

News via RSS

Health - Reuters

Diet, Alcohol Linked to Nearly 1/3 of Cancer Cases

Tue May 18,11:11 AM ET

Add Health - Reuters to My

By Patricia Reaney

HARROGATE, England (Reuters) -

Diet is second only to

tobacco as a leading cause of cancer and, along with alcohol,

is responsible for nearly a third of cases of the disease in

developed countries, a leading researcher said on Tuesday.

Health Have questions about your health? Find answers here.

Dr Tim Key, of the University of Oxford, told a cancer

conference that scientists are still discovering how certain

foods contribute to cancer but they know that diet, alcohol and

obesity play a major role.

"Five percent of cancers could be avoided if nobody was

obese," he said.

While tobacco is linked to about 30 percent of cancer

cases, diet is involved in an estimated 25 percent and alcohol

in about six percent.

"We know that obesity and alcohol are important," said Key.

Obesity raises the risk of breast, womb, bowel and kidney

cancer while alcohol is known to cause cancers of the mouth,

throat and liver. Its dangerous impact is increased when

combined with smoking.

Both alcohol consumption and obesity rates are rising in

many countries.

Key told the meeting of the charity Cancer Research UK that

other elements of diet linked to cancer are still unknown but

scientists are hoping that the EPIC study, which is comparing

the diets of 500,000 people in 10 countries and their risk of

cancer, will provide some answers.

Early results of the study have revealed that Norway,

Sweden and Denmark have the lowest consumption of fruit and

vegetables among European countries while Italy and Spain have

the highest. Eating at least five portions of fruit and

vegetables a day is recommended to reduce the risk of cancer.

Key, principal scientist on the EPIC study, said it is

looking at dietary links to some of the most common cancers

including colorectal, breast and prostate.

So far it has shown that obesity is linked to an increased

risk of colorectal cancer, while processed and red meat also

probably raise the chances of developing the disease and eating

lots of fruit and vegetables decrease the odds.

"Hormones are the key factor in breast cancer. There is

currently about a five-fold variation in breast cancer rates

around the world. Much of that variation is due to parity, the

number of children (a woman has) and breast feeding," Key said.

But he added that obesity and alcohol can also raise the

risk of the disease. Scientists working on the study have not

positively identified any dietary factors associated with

prostate cancer.

Story Tools

Email Story

Post/Read Msgs

(350)

Print Story

Ratings:

Would you recommend this story?

Not at all

1

- 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

Highly

Tools Sponsored by: HP

Print better photos.

Special Feature What's Next in Tech Gadgets? Take a look at what's in the pipeline.

Sign In

News Story - Diet, Alcohol Linked to Nearly 1/3 of Cancer Cases

Recommended Posts

Guest guest

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Join the conversation

Support the Ashram

Join Groups

Top Downloads