Nutrition and Cancer: Introduction 1

Abstract

The interest in nutrition and cancer is not new. In 1809 William Lambe (1) published a treatise on diet and cancer in which he impugned foods of animal origin and ordinary water as the principal causes of cancer. Lambe's prescription for cancer prevention was a strict vegetarian diet and distilled water. There was an interest in undernutrition as a preventative measure in experimental carcinogenesis at the beginning of this century (2, 3). Major research activity relating to diet and cancer was evident in the 1940s with the work being centered in the laboratories of Tannenbaum at the Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago and of Baumann who was at the University of Wisconsin. A survey of index entries under “diet” found in Cancer Research, Volumes 1 (1941) to 43 (1983) shows 52 listings between 1941 and 1950,49 between 1951 and 1960, 18 between 1961 and 1965, 13 between 1966 and 1975, and 70 between 1976 and 1983. Clearly interest is on the upswing.

Diet can influence carcinogenesis in a number of ways. There is the possibility of direct ingestion of carcinogens or their precursors; diet can affect the ways in which carcinogens are transported or metabolized; diet can provide substrates for carcinogen formation; diet can affect cellular metabolism so as to increase receptivity for carcinogenic action. Finally, the bulk of diet (calories, energy) may enhance carcinogenesis.

Mortality from cancer as a function of body weight (4) has shown that cancers of the endometrium, gallbladder, cervix, colon, and pancreas may be more prevalent in subjects who are to 10–20% overweight but a few cancers, among them lung and lymphoma, are elevated in subjects who are 11–20% under-weight. Overall, underweight appears to be more of a risk in men than in women. A study of diet and its relation to colon cancer was reported over 50 years ago (5). That study indicated vegetables, cereals, and dairy products as negative risk factors.