DIETARY HABITS OF COLON AND RECTAL CANCER PATIENTS

Abstract

A hospital-based case-control study was conducted in the north Kanto area in Japan, to clarify the relationship between dietary habits after the marriage and the incidence of colon and rectal cancers.Sixty-six colon cancer patients, 64 rectal cancer patients, and the controls matched for sex, age and occupation were interviewed by an interviewer. Foods and dietary habits were queried. Odds ratio (OR) and stepwise logistic regression were used to compare the dietary patterns of the case and control groups.The colon cancer group ate more bread during childhood (OR=3.43) than the controls, and ate less mochi (rice cake) (OR=0.33), and drank less green tea (OR=0.09) than the controls. On the other hand, the rectal cancer group ate more bread (OR 2.18) and less noodles (OR= 0.30) during childhood, and more natto (fermented soybeans) (OR 3.17) and mandarin oranges (OR =2.71) than the controls after the marriage.Stepwise logistic regression clarified the dietary patterns of the case and control groups. The incidence of colon cancer seemed related more with Western eating habits, while that of rectal cancer had remarkable relation neither with traditional Japanese nor Western diet. It may be concluded that the risk factors of the incidence of these two cancers were different in Japan.