The relation between 17 micronutrients and breast‐cancer risk was analyzed in a case‐control study conducted between 1993 and 1999 in the Swiss Canton of Vaud. Cases were 289 women with incident, histologically confirmed breast cancer, and controls were 442 women admitted to the same hospital for a wide spectrum of acute non‐neoplastic conditions unrelated to long‐term modifications of diet. Dietary habits were investigated using a validated food‐frequency questionnaire. Odds ratios (ORs) were obtained after allowance for age, education, parity, menopausal status, body mass index, total energy intake and alcohol drinking. For several micronutrients, the ORs tended to decline with increasing tertile of intake, with significant inverse trends in risk for potassium (OR for the highest tertile = 0.21), total carotenoids (OR = 0.42), lycopene (OR = 0.43), folic acid (OR = 0.45), vitamin C (OR = 0.19), vitamin E (OR = 0.37) and vitamin B6 (OR = 0.54). In a model including a continuous term for the 7 micronutrients significantly related to breast cancer, the only persisting significant inverse relations were for vitamin C (OR = 0.23) and lycopene (OR = 0.64). © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Summary Most studies of diet and colorectal cancer have considered nutrients and micronutrients, but the role of foods or food groups remains open to debate. To elucidate the issue, we examined data from a case-control study conducted between 1992 and 1997 in the Swiss canton of Vaud. Cases were 223 patients (142 men, 81 women) with incident, histologically confirmed colon (n = 119) or rectal (n = 104) cancer (median age 63 years), linked with the Cancer Registry of the Swiss Canton of Vaud, and controls were 491 subjects (211 men, 280 women, median age 58 years) admitted to the same university hospital for a wide spectrum of acute non-neoplastic conditions unrelated to long-term modifications of diet. Odds ratios (OR) were obtained after allowance for age, sex, education, smoking, alcohol, body mass index, physical activity and total energy intake. Significant associations were observed for refined grain (OR = 1.32 for an increase of one serving per day), and red meat (OR = 1.54), pork and processed meat (OR = 1.27), alcohol (OR = 1.28), and significant protections for whole grain (OR = 0.85), raw (OR = 0.85) and cooked vegetables (OR = 0.69), citrus (OR = 0.86) and other fruits (OR = 0.85), and for coffee (OR = 0.73). Garlic was also protective (OR = 0.32 for the highest tertile of intake). These findings in a central European population support the hypothesis that a diet rich in refined grains and red meat increases the risk of colorectal cancer; they, therefore, support the recommendation to substitute whole grains for refined grain, to limit meat intake, and to increase fruit and vegetable consumption.Keywords: colorectal carcinoma; diet, case-control study; Switzerland 1283British Journal of Cancer (1999) 79(7/8), 1283-1287 © 1999 Cancer Research Campaign Article no. bjoc.1998 Received 30 April 1998 Revised 28 July 1998 Accepted 30 July 1998 Correspondence to: F Levi, Registre Vaudois des Tumeurs, CHUV-Falaises 1, CH-1011 Lausanne, Switzerland All interviews were conducted in hospital. Less than 15% of subjects approached for interview refused. The structured questionnaire included information on sociodemographic characteristics and lifestyle habits (e.g. smoking, alcohol consumption and physical exercise), anthropometric factors and a problem-oriented medical history.A food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ), adapted from a validated one (Franceschi et al, 1993;Decarli et al, 1996), was administered by an interviewer to assess subjectsÕ habitual diet, including total energy. Average weekly frequency of consumption of specific foods or food groups, as well as complex recipes (including the most common ones in the diet) during the 2 years before cancer diagnosis or hospital admission (for controls) was determined. Intakes lower than once per week but at least once per month were coded as 0.5.The FFQ included 79 foods, food groups or recipes grouped into six sections: (i) bread and cereal dishes; (ii) meat, poultry, fish and foods used as meat substitutes; (iii) vegetables (side dishes); (iv) fruit; (v) swee...

No abstract

Resveratrol is a non-flavonoid polyphenol that has attracted attention as a potential anticancer agent in vitro and in vivo, but scanty epidemiological data are available. We have therefore analysed the relation between dietary intake of resveratrol and breast cancer risk using data from a case-control study conducted between 1993 and 2003 in the Swiss Canton of Vaud on 369 cases and 602 controls. Compared with the lowest tertile of total resveratrol intake, the multivariate odds ratios (OR) were 0.50 for the intermediate and 0.39 for the highest tertile, and the trend in risk was significant. A significant inverse association was observed for resveratrol from grapes (OR = 0.64 and 0.55), but not for wine. The inverse relation between resveratrol and breast cancer risk was not explained by several potential confounding factors, including detailed allowance for alcohol intake, nor attributable to a non-specific favourable effect of fruit on breast cancer risk.

The influence of food groups on oesophageal cancer risk was analysed using data from a case-control study conducted between 1992 and 1999 in the Swiss Canton of Vaud on 101 incident, histologically confirmed cases (92 squamous cell, 9 adenocarcinomas) and 327 controls admitted to hospital for acute, non-neoplastic conditions. Multivariate odds ratios (OR) were computed after allowance for age, sex, tobacco, alcohol and non-alcohol energy. Significant increased risks emerged for red meat (OR = 1.7 for an increase of one serving per day), pork and processed meat (OR = 1.6), and eggs (OR = 1.5), whereas inverse associations were observed for milk (OR = 0.7), raw and cooked vegetables (OR = 0.5), citrus and other fruits (OR = 0.5), as well as for a more varied diet (OR = 0.5). Most associations were apparently stronger in heavy alcohol drinkers, suggesting an interaction between poor diet and alcohol drinking in oesophageal carcinogenesis.

No abstract

No abstract

Objective: To investigate the possible differential role of re®ned and whole grain cereals on the risk of upper digestive and respiratory tract neoplasms. Design: Hospital-based case ± control study. Setting: University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland. Subjects: A total of 156 incident cases of cancers of the oral cavity and pharynx, 101 of the oesophagus, 40 of the larynx, and 349 control subjects admitted for a wide spectrum of acute non-neoplastic conditions. Intervention: Trained interviewers collected information using a structured and validated questionnaire. Odds ratios (OR) of various cancers for a tertile increment of intake of re®ned and whole grains were estimated using unconditional multiple logistic regression. Results: Re®ned grains were directly related to the risk of cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx (OR 1.9 for the highest tertile), oesophagus (OR 3.7) and larynx (OR 4.0). In contrast, whole grain cereals were protective, with OR of 0.6 for oral cavity and pharynx, 0.3 for oesophagus, and 0.7 for larynx. For the three sites combined, the OR for the highest tertile was 5.7 for re®ned grains and 0.5 for wholegrains. The trends in risk for re®ned grains were signi®cant for all sites and their combination, and for wholegrain for oesophageal cancer and all sites. Conclusions: Even if inference on causality and the biological interpretation remain open to discussion, the present data indicate and further quantify that re®ned cereals are an unfavourable, but whole grain ones a favourable indicator of the risk of upper aerodigestive and respiratory tract neoplasms.