Boston's Harvard School of Public Health has found no association with two wide-ranging dietary patterns and the risk of pancreatic cancer.
Lead author Dominique Michaud assessed the dietary patterns of nearly 125,000 participants enrolled in the Brigham and Women's Hospital-based Nurses Health Study and the HSPH-based Health Professionals Follow-up Study.
The researchers identified two dietary patterns; the western diet -- high consumption of red meat, processed meat, French fries, processed grains, sweets, desserts and sugared beverages -- and a prudent diet, consisting of high consumption of fruits, vegetables, fish, poultry, legumes and whole grains.
The researchers found no strong association between the two dietary patterns and the risk of pancreatic cancer among the study participants, even when looking at lifestyle factors such as smoking and body mass index.
"We have previously shown that a high glycemic load and dietary sugar are related to an elevated risk of pancreatic cancer among women," said Michaud. "More research needs to be done to examine individual dietary factors."
The findings appear in Wednesday's Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
