title: Diet, nutrition, and cancer: past, present and future.
abstract: Despite the potentially important roles of diet and nutrition in cancer prevention, the evidence to support these roles is widely perceived by the public and health professionals as being inconsistent. In this Review, we present the issues and challenges in conducting and interpreting diet-cancer research, including those relating to the design of epidemiological studies, dietary data collection methods, and factors that affect the outcome of intervention trials. Approaches to improve effect estimates, such as the use of biomarkers to improve the accuracy of characterizing dietary exposures, are also discussed. Nutritional and dietary patterns are complex; therefore, the use of a reductionist approach to investigations, by focusing on specific nutrients, can produce misleading information. The effects of tumour heterogeneity and the failure to appreciate the nonlinear, U-shaped relationship between micronutrients and cancer in both observational studies and clinical trials are discussed. New technologies and investigational approaches are enabling the exploration of complex interactions between genetic, epigenetic, metabolic, and gut-microbial processes that will inform our knowledge of the diet-cancer relationship. Communicating the status of the evolving science in the context of the overall scientific evidence base, and evidence-based dietary recommendations for cancer prevention, should be emphasized in guidance for the public and for individual patients.
authors.affiliation: Yale School of Public Health, Yale University, 60 College Street, PO Box 208034, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA.|Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, US Food and Drug Administration, 5100 Paint Branch Parkway, College Park, Maryland 20740, USA.
authors.forename: Susan T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Mayne
authors.affiliation: Yale School of Public Health, Yale University, 60 College Street, PO Box 208034, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA.
authors.forename: Mary C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Playdon
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, 3855 Health Sciences Drive, La Jolla, California 92093-0901 USA.
authors.forename: Cheryl L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Rock
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000639:trends; D004032:Diet; D004035:Diet Therapy / Q000639:trends; D000072001:Diet, Healthy; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology; D005502:Food; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control*; D009752:Nutritional Status