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ISSUE 2219 Friday 22 June 2001

Smoking drinkers '50 times more at risk from cancer' By Celia Hall, Medical Editor

PEOPLE who drink more than a bottle of wine a day as well as smoking more than 20 cigarettes increase their risk of getting throat cancers by more than 50 times, specialists said yesterday.

Early results from a huge European study of diet and cancer also show that eating about 1lb (500 grams) of fruit and vegetables every day, not including potatoes, decreases the risk of throat cancers by 50 per cent. But the researchers in the Europe-wide investigation, part of which began 15 years ago, have found no protective effect from eating fruit and vegetables on lung and stomach cancers.

The results confirm that eating fruit, vegetables and fish protects people against cancer. They found only a small, "non-significant", increased risk of cancer linked to eating meat, including red meat. Preliminary results from the European Prospective Investigation into Nutrition and Cancer (Epic), involving 400,000 people, including Britons, will be discussed today at a European cancer and diet conference at Lyons, France.

The throat cancers identified in the research are cancer of the oesophagus, the gullet; the pharynx, the passage between the back of the nose and the mouth; and the larynx, the voice box. This is called the aerodigestive tract. The incidence of oesophageal cancer has been rising in Western men in recent years. The long awaited results pose scientists with more problems as they indicate that the relationship between diet and cancer and the benefits of the "Mediterranean diet" are not clear cut.

The Imperial Cancer Research Fund said it was confident that about 30 per cent of all cancers were related to diet. "People should be eating plenty of fruit and vegetables every day. Unfortunately, a good diet will not make up for other bad habits like drinking excessively and smoking." It said that eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, recommended by the Department of Health, should be seen as a minimum.

The Epic study shows that drinking more than a bottle of wine a day increases the risk of getting one of the throat cancers nine times and smoking a pack or more of cigarettes a day increases the risk eight times. An Epic spokesman said: "The combination of these will have a multiplier effect, increasing the risk of our smoker-drinker by 50 times." The study also looked at the effects of fish, meat and dairy produce on cancers of the stomach, bowel and aerodigestive tract.

The risk for colon cancer increased with the consumption of preserved meat, such as salamis and hams, and was reduced in line with the consumption of fish. But there was no clear risk of bowel cancer being associated with eating red meat although methods of cooking have not yet been investigated. Eating poultry was not associated with a cancer risk and was "possibly" associated with a decreased risk.

The researchers say: "There was a positive association between total consumption of meat and cancers of the stomach and upper aerodigestive tract. However, this association is weak and non-significant and will be studied further."

The researchers found no clear link between the consumption of fruit and vegetables and the incidence of prostate cancer. This type of cancer is twice as high in northern European men who eat less fruit and vegetable than it is in Southern European men who eat more.

Dr Tim Key, of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund said: "Future analyses will look in more detail at specific fruits and vegetables, at other food and nutrients and at blood levels of nutrients and hormones."

-- Anonymous, June 22, 2001