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Esophageal Cancer

Scientists last year looked at the food consumption habits of nearly 700 people, asking them to recall how frequently they ate 54 specific food items. The responses were then sorted into six distinct dietary patterns called "healthy," "high-meat," "high-salty -snack" "high-dessert," "high-milk," and "high-white-bread." The lowest rate of esophageal cancer was found among respondents within the "healthy" pattern. Included in this diet were many fruits, vegetables, and whole grains--which are also good sources of carotenoids, vitamin C, B vitamins, and dietary fiber.

Esophageal cancer is particularly virulent, with only 12 percent of patients surviving for 5 years. Respondents consuming "high-meat" diets, who also had lower fruit and vegetable intakes, had a 3.6 times higher risk of esophageal cancer--and a nearly 3 times higher risk of stomach cancer--than did those within the "healthy" diet pattern. Rather than choosing the recommended two to three daily servings from varied groups of protein sources including poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts, as well as meat, those following a "high-meat" dietary pattern consumed nearly three servings of red meat or processed meat alone.

This work was done with National Cancer Institute researchers and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Now, larger studies are needed to confirm these findings. Katherine L. Tucker, Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts; phone (617) 556-3351, e-mail tucker@hnrc.tufts.edu.

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