To elucidate the role of dietary habits, a study was carried out in 1992–1997 in the province of Pordenone in Northeastern Italy, and those of Rome and Latina in central Italy. Cases were 512 men and 86 women with cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx (lip, salivary glands and nasopharynx excluded) and controls were 1008 men and 483 women who had been admitted to local hospitals for a broad range of acute non-neoplastic conditions. The validated dietary section of the questionnaire included 78 foods or recipes and ten questions on fat intake patterns. After allowance for education, smoking, alcohol and total energy intake, significant trends of increasing risk with increasing intake emerged for soups, eggs, processed meats, cakes and desserts, and butter. Risk was approximately halved in the highest compared to the lowest intake quintile for coffee and tea, white bread, poultry, fish, raw and cooked vegetables, citrus fruit, and olive oil. The inverse association with oils, especially olive oil, was only slightly attenuated by allowance for vegetable intake. Thus, frequent consumption of vegetables, citrus fruit, fish and vegetable oils were the major features of a low-risk diet for cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaign

To assess the dietary correlates of cancer of the ovary, the consumption of a wide range of food groups has been investigated in a case-control study conducted between January 1992 and September 1999 in 4 Italian areas. Cases were 1,031 women with incident, histologically confirmed epithelial ovarian cancer; controls were 2,411 women admitted to the same network of hospitals as the cases for acute, non-malignant and non-gynecological conditions, unrelated to hormonal or digestive tract diseases or to long-term modifications of diet. The subjects' usual diet was investigated through a validated food frequency questionnaire including 78 foods and recipes, then grouped into 18 food groups. Odds ratios (OR), and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using unconditional multiple logistic regression models including terms for age, study center, education, year at interview, parity, oral contraceptive use and energy intake. Our knowledge on risk factors of ovarian cancer is mainly related to hormonal and reproductive factors, and include nulliparity, late age at menopause, family history of ovarian and breast cancer, and infrequent oral contraceptive (OC) use. 1 Diet has been suggested to have a potential influence on ovarian carcinogenesis, although dietary associations have not yet been established and well quantified, and only scattered data from epidemiological studies are available. 2 Descriptive epidemiology and ecological studies have reported positive relations between fats, proteins and total calories intake and ovarian cancer risk. 3,4 Data from analytical, mainly casecontrol studies, also supported the hypothesis of a possible increased risk in relation to various types of fat, 5-10 but not with monounsaturated ones. 11 With reference with specific foods, several case-control studies reported a beneficial effect of diet rich in vegetables on ovarian cancer risk. 7,10,12,13 A few case-control studies showed that women with cancer of the ovary reported more frequent meat consumption, 8,10,14 and others suggested that high egg intake may also increase the risk of ovarian cancer. 6,7,9 Fish, on the other hand, seemed to exert a protective effect. 6,8,15,16 The evidence of an association between these foods and cancer of the ovary is, however, inadequate.Ovarian cancer also has been reported to be correlated with per capita milk consumption and lactase persistence, 17,18 and it has been hypothesized that lactose, or its component sugars, may be responsible for this association. 17 Other investigations, however, did not support the hypothesis that galactose plays a role in the development of ovarian cancer, 12,19 -21 and suggested that any potential association between milk consumption and ovarian cancer may be due to the fat content of milk. 16,22,23 To better assess the dietary correlates of cancer of the ovary, the consumption of a wide range of food groups has been investigated in a uniquely large hospital-based case-control study conducted in Italy. MATERIAL AND METHODSA multicentric...

We have investigated the relation between alcohol, tobacco and dietary habits and risk of adenocarcinoma of the small intestine using data from 2 hospital‐based case‐control studies on intestinal cancers conducted in 6 Italian centres between 1985 and 1996. Cases were 23 patients below age 75 years with adenocarcinoma of the small intestine. Controls were 230 patients admitted to hospital for a wide spectrum of acute, non‐neoplastic, non‐digestive tract diseases, matched to cases on sex, age, study and centre. Odds ratios (ORs) were estimated using conditional logistic regression. Alcohol and tobacco consumption did not increase the risk of adenocarcinoma of the small intestine. The risk appeared to be directly related to intake of bread, pasta or rice (OR = 3.8), sugar (OR = 2.9) and red meat (OR = 4.6), and inversely to coffee (OR = 0.4), fish (OR = 0.3), vegetables (OR = 0.3) and fruit (OR = 0.6). Our results suggest that dietary correlates of adenocarcinoma of the small intestine are similar to those of colon cancer and at least of the same magnitude. While the present data are inconsistent with a major effect of tobacco or alcohol, a moderate association between these factors and small bowel cancer may have been obscured by the play of chance. Int. J. Cancer 82:171–174, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

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The intake of selected micronutrients, which were positively correlated to a diet rich in vegetables and fruits, was inversely associated with ovarian cancer.