The role of metabolic carcinogenesis in cancer causation and prevention: Evidence from the european prospective investigation into cancer and nutrition

Abstract

The theory that nutrition might be involved in the causation and prevention of cancer arose over 100 years ago from laboratory studies of the effect of diet on tumour growth. During the mid-20th century, the major focus of cancer epidemiology was on the role of tobacco and alcohol. It was not until the early 1980s, following a seminal report from Doll and Peto on cancer causes, that major research programmes on nutrition and cancer were instigated. The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) was established at IARC-WHO as a large prospective cohort study designed specifically to investigate the relationship of diet, nutritional factors, anthropometry and physical activity with cancer risk. Since the early 1990s, EPIC has made a major contribution to understanding the effect of these factors on population risk of cancer. This chapter summarises the development of the field of nutritional cancer epidemiology, and describes how the EPIC study was designed to investigate cancer and nutrition. Key findings from EPIC in the role of nutrition and metabolic factors and cancer are highlighted.