EAT CONSUMPTION HAS been associated with colorectal neoplasia in the epidemiological literature, but the strength of the association and types of meat involved have not been consistent. Few studies have evaluated long-term meat consumption or the relationship between meat consumption and the risk of rectal cancer. Studies of red meat consumption and colorectal adenoma have reported odds ratios in the range of 1.2 to 1.3. [1][2][3] Case-control studies 4-25 of colorectal cancer conducted in the United States and Europe have generally reported increased risk associated with red or processed meat intake in analyses of men, 4-9,13,14 and men and women combined, [10][11][12][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] but not in analyses that included only women. [5][6][7][8][9]13 Case-control studies [26][27][28][29][30][31][32] of colorectal cancer among Asians in the United States or Asia have more consistently reported a positive association with red, processed, or total meats.Five 33-37 of 10 33-42 US prospective studies of colorectal cancer reported positive associations with red or processed meat intake, although some as-sociations [35][36][37] did not reach statistical significance. European prospective studies [43][44][45][46][47][48][49] have generally reported no association with fresh or total meat but positive associations with cured or processed meat, 43,45,46 sausages, 47 or smoked/salted fish. 45 High consumption of poultry or fish has been inconsistently associated with higher 36,37,46 or lower 34,40,41,47,49 risk of colorectal cancer; some studies have found no association. 33,39,42,43,45,48 Only 2 prospective studies 38,49 have reported on rectal can-cer in relation to meat consumption. The results were conflicting but were limited by the small number of cases.See also pp 183 and 233.

No abstract

Background: Obesity and physical activity, in part through their effects on insulin sensitivity, may be modifiable risk factors for pancreatic cancer. Methods: The authors analyzed data from the American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort to examine the association between measures of adiposity, recreational physical activity, and pancreatic cancer risk. Information on current weight and weight at age 18, location of weight gain, and recreational physical activity were obtained at baseline in 1992 via a selfadministered questionnaire for 145,627 men and women who were cancer-free at enrollment. During the 7 years of follow-up, 242 incident pancreatic cancer cases were identified among these participants. Cox proportional hazards modeling was used to compute hazard rate ratios (RR) and to adjust for potential confounding factors including personal history of diabetes and smoking.

This new cohort of both men and women promises to be particularly valuable for the study of cancer occurrence, mortality, and survival as they relate to obesity and weight change, physical activity at various points in life, vitamin supplement use, exogenous hormone use, other medications (such as aspirin and nonsteroidal anti- inflammatory drugs) and cancer screening modalities.

BACKGROUND Large‐scale, prospective cohort studies have played a critical role in discovering factors that contribute to variability in cancer risk in human populations. Epidemiologists and volunteers at the American Cancer Society (ACS) were among the first to establish such cohorts, beginning in the early 1950s and continuing through the present, and these ACS cohorts have made landmark contributions in many areas of epidemiologic research. METHODS AND RESULTS The Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort was established in 1992 and was designed to investigate the relation between diet and other lifestyle factors and exposures and the risk of cancer, mortality, and survival. The cohort includes over 84,000 men and 97,000 women who completed a mailed questionnaire in 1992. New questionnaires are sent to surviving cohort members every other year to update exposure information and to ascertain new occurrences of cancer; a 90% response rate was achieved for follow‐up questionnaires in 1997 and 1999. Reported cancers are verified through medical records, registry linkage, or death certificates. The cohort is followed actively for all cases of incident cancer and for all causes of death. Through a collaborative effort among ACS national and division staff, volunteers, and the American College of Surgeons, blood samples were collected from a subgroup of 40,000 cohort members and are in storage at a central repository for future investigation of dietary, hormonal, genetic, and other factors and cancer risk. Collection of DNA samples from buccal cells in an additional 50,000 cohort members is underway currently and will be completed in 2002. CONCLUSIONS This new cohort of both men and women promises to be particularly valuable for the study of cancer occurrence, mortality, and survival as they relate to obesity and weight change, physical activity at various points in life, vitamin supplement use, exogenous hormone use, other medications (such as aspirin and nonsteroidal anti‐ inflammatory drugs) and cancer screening modalities. Cancer 2002;94:2490–2501. © 2002 American Cancer Society. DOI 10.1002/cncr.101970