Cancers, environnements et modes de vie

Abstract

Dr Riboli describes how, following his medical studies, he became interested in epidemiology, first in Milan, then in Boston, and since 1983 at the International Agency for Research on Cancer. He then describes how epidemiological studies have indicated that different dietary patterns, anthropometric characteristics and physical activity are related to the wide variations in cancer risk throughout the world. Western diet and lifestyle are generally associated with high incidence of cancers of the colorectum, breast, prostate and endometrium but with lower incidence of cancer of the stomach, oesophagus, liver and cervix uteri, whereas in most developing countries of Asia and Latin America the pattern of cancer incidence is almost the opposite. In 1992 Dr Riboli set up the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), a multi-centre prospective cohort study designed to investigate the relationship between nutrition and cancer, with the potential for studying other diseases as well. More than half a million study subjects have been recruited in 23 centres located in 10 European countries, to be followed up for cancer incidence and cause-specific mortality for several decades. Information was collected from the study participants through a non-dietary questionnaire on lifestyle variables and through a dietary questionnaire addressing usual diet. Anthropometric measurements were performed and blood samples taken, from which plasma, serum, red cells and leukocyte fractions were separated and aliquoted for long-term storage in liquid nitrogen, with a view to future genetic and biochemical studies.