No association found between diet and pancreatic cancer

According to researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), the risk of pancreatic cancer does not appear to be associated with dietary patterns.

Dominique Michaud, assistant professor of epidemiology at HSPH and colleagues found when they looked at men and women with two wide-ranging dietary patterns that there was no association between diet and the risk of pancreatic cancer.

The 125,000 participants who were enrolled in the Brigham and Women's Hospital-based Nurses Health Study (NHS) and the HSPH based Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS) were sent detailed food frequency questionnaires sent to the participants every four years between 1984 (for NHS participants) and 1986 (for HPFS participants) and up to 2000, and two dietary patterns were identified.

The western diet, consisting of high consumption of red meat, processed meat, French fries, processed grains, sweets, desserts and sugared beverages and the prudent diet, consisting of high consumption of fruits, vegetables, fish, poultry, legumes and whole grains. During the span of the study 366 cases of pancreatic cancer were documented (185 men and 181 women).

They found no strong association between the two dietary patterns and the risk of pancreatic cancer when looking at lifestyle factors even though those on the prudent diet had healthier lifestyle behaviours, such as not smoking, exercising more, taking multivitamins and drinking less alcohol, compared to those on the western diet.

Michaud concludes that even though they did not find any associations with the two major dietary patterns, individual dietary components are still likely to play a role in the risk of pancreatic cancer as previous studies have shown that a high glycemic load and dietary sugar are related to an elevated risk of pancreatic cancer among women. More research needs to be done to examine individual dietary factors. Prevention is a priority in such a highly fatal disease. Both smoking and obesity increase pancreatic cancer risk and should be considered for prevention."

The findings appear in the April 6, 2005 edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.