Cancer Nutrition and Dietary Factors

Nutrition and Cancer Prevention

• Proven benefits of dietary factors in cancer prevention are yet to be verified in clinical trials.
• Vitamin E supplements may have a possible benefit in prostate cancer, but evidence is insufficient for breast and lung cancer.
• Vitamin V supplements have insufficient evidence to conclude benefit or risk for prostate, breast, and lung cancer.
• ß-carotene supplements may have a possible benefit in breast cancer, but evidence shows harm in lung cancer.
• Selenium may have a possible benefit in prostate cancer, but evidence is insufficient for breast cancer.

Guidelines for Cancer Prevention

• Maintain a healthy weight throughout life.
• Adopt a physically active lifestyle, with at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity, 5 or more days a week.
• Eat a healthy diet, with an emphasis on plant-based foods, including:
  • 5 or more servings of a variety of vegetables and fruits each day.
  • Whole grains over processed grains.
  • Limiting intake of processed and red meats.

Complete Strategy for Eliminating Cancer

• Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) blood test and ultrasound are recommended.

Cancer Prevention

• Choose a diet rich in a variety of plant-based foods.
• Eat plenty of vegetables and fruits.
• Maintain a healthy weight and be physically active.
• Select foods low in fat and salt.
• Prepare and store food safely.

Diet and Cancer

• Evidence for the influence of dietary factors on cancer is uncertain.
• Fruits and non-starchy vegetables are associated with a probable decreased risk for cancers of the mouth, esophagus, and stomach.
• Fruits are also associated with a probable decreased risk of lung cancer.

Maintain a Desirable Weight

• Obesity is a recognized cancer risk factor.
• Cancers associated with obesity include:
  • Breast (postmenopausal) and endometrium in women.
  • Prostate, colorectal, kidney, liver/gall bladder, and pancreatic in men.

Body Weight and Cancer

• Excess calorie intake in animals has a significant influence on the appearance of spontaneously, or chemically or radiation-induced cancers.
• Calorie restriction appears to reduce metabolic rate, body temperature, free radical generation, and genetic mutations.
• Calorie restriction may also increase the body's ability to detoxify carcinogens.

Physical Activity and Cancer

• A growing body of epidemiologic evidence suggests that people who are more physically active have a lower risk of certain malignancies than those who are more sedentary.

Vitamin and Dietary Supplement Use

• Some have advocated vitamin and mineral supplements for cancer prevention.
• Many different mechanistic pathways for anticancer effects have been invoked.
• The evidence is insufficient to support the use of multivitamin and mineral supplements or single vitamins or minerals to prevent cancer.
• Beta carotene is an antioxidant that was thought to prevent or reverse smoking-related changes leading to lung cancer, but few prospective placebo-controlled trials found that smokers and former smokers who received beta carotene supplements had increased lung cancer incidence and mortality.