Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for nearly 10 million deaths in 2020, or nearly one in six deaths. Although some individuals are at higher risk due to non-modifiable risk factors, between 30-40% of all cancer cases are estimated to be preventable through healthy lifestyles, including healthy diets. In 2018, a report from the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research promoted ten cancer prevention recommendations on diet and nutrition. But characterizing a healthy diet is not easy, since foods and nutrients are not consumed alone.
Over the past decade, dietary pattern analysis has emerged as an alternative and complementary approach to evaluating the relationship between diet and cancer risk. Instead of looking at individual nutrients or foods, dietary pattern analysis examines the effects of the overall diet. Conceptually, dietary patterns represent a broader picture of food and nutrient consumption, and may thus be more predictive of disease risk than individual foods or nutrients. Research on the effects of diet, nutrition, and physical activity on the risk of cancer in cancer survivors is growing, but it is much more limited than that on risk. Therefore, the current lifestyle recommendations for cancer survivors should be similar to those for cancer prevention until we do not have specific recommendations.
It is difficult to analyze the role of individual foods because a typical diet is characterized by a mixture of different foods, which contain multiple nutrients with complex interactions, where an increase in the consumption of some foods will lead to a decrease in the consumption of others. By contrast, the examination of the diet as a whole, as is done in dietary patterns research, could provide stronger effect estimates and results that can be more readily translated into dietary guidelines.
The goal of this Research Topic is to provide more epidemiological evidence on the relationships and associations between dietary patterns (both a priori and a posteriori) and cancer risk and cancer survival. We particularly encourage longitudinal studies, but retrospective studies will also be considered. Moreover, systematic reviews and meta-analyses of the above described sub-topics will be welcomed.
Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for nearly 10 million deaths in 2020, or nearly one in six deaths. Although some individuals are at higher risk due to non-modifiable risk factors, between 30-40% of all cancer cases are estimated to be preventable through healthy lifestyles, including healthy diets. In 2018, a report from the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research promoted ten cancer prevention recommendations on diet and nutrition. But characterizing a healthy diet is not easy, since foods and nutrients are not consumed alone.
Over the past decade, dietary pattern analysis has emerged as an alternative and complementary approach to evaluating the relationship between diet and cancer risk. Instead of looking at individual nutrients or foods, dietary pattern analysis examines the effects of the overall diet. Conceptually, dietary patterns represent a broader picture of food and nutrient consumption, and may thus be more predictive of disease risk than individual foods or nutrients. Research on the effects of diet, nutrition, and physical activity on the risk of cancer in cancer survivors is growing, but it is much more limited than that on risk. Therefore, the current lifestyle recommendations for cancer survivors should be similar to those for cancer prevention until we do not have specific recommendations.
It is difficult to analyze the role of individual foods because a typical diet is characterized by a mixture of different foods, which contain multiple nutrients with complex interactions, where an increase in the consumption of some foods will lead to a decrease in the consumption of others. By contrast, the examination of the diet as a whole, as is done in dietary patterns research, could provide stronger effect estimates and results that can be more readily translated into dietary guidelines.
The goal of this Research Topic is to provide more epidemiological evidence on the relationships and associations between dietary patterns (both a priori and a posteriori) and cancer risk and cancer survival. We particularly encourage longitudinal studies, but retrospective studies will also be considered. Moreover, systematic reviews and meta-analyses of the above described sub-topics will be welcomed.