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Study presented at American Institute for Cancer Research conference examines risks of diet-related inflammation

January 22, 2014

Researchers at the Arnold School of Public are adding to the body of scholarly work on chronic inflammation as a trigger in the development of cancer, along with heart disease and diabetes.

Featured recently at the annual research conference of the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR), the study suggests that eating a diet high in sugar, saturated fats and others foods that promote inflammation increases the risk of premature death from any cause, including cancers of the gastrointestinal tract. Researchers from the Arnold School's Cancer Prevention and Control Program (CPCP) used an inflammatory index of foods and nutrients that had been developed at the University of South Carolina.

 "Studies have shown that diet can modify inflammation, and inflammation can drive the growth of many cancers, such as colorectal cancer," said Dr. Susan E. Steck, an associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and co-author of the study. “In previous studies, we found that dietary inflammatory index scores were associated with levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation.

"This study extends the research to examine disease outcomes and suggests that consuming fewer pro-inflammatory dietary factors and more anti-inflammatory dietary factors may reduce risk of gastrointestinal tract cancer death," said Steck, a CPCP researcher.

The study followed 10,525 men and women in the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study from 1987 through 2003. Participants had completed three-day food records when the study began.

At the end of the study, 259 people had died, including 30 from gastrointestinal tract cancers. Gastrointestinal tract cancers include cancers of the esophagus, stomach, colon and rectum.

Compared to those consuming the most anti-inflammatory diet, participants consuming the most pro-inflammatory diet had a 53 percent higher risk of mortality during the course of the study. (The risk slightly decreased after adjusting for cardiorespiratory fitness.)

For gastrointestinal tract cancers, there was a four-fold increase among the group consuming the most pro-inflammatory diet compared to the most anti-inflammatory.

"This study adds support to the recommendations to consume a more anti-inflammatory diet, rich in plant-based foods that contain numerous anti-inflammatory nutrients and phytochemicals," said Fred Tabung, a doctoral candidate in epidemiology at the Arnold School and the study's lead author.

"Due to the small number of gastrointestinal tract cancers in our study, our finding needs to be confirmed in larger longitudinal studies," he said.

The study, which received national media attention, was funded by the USC Center for Colon Cancer Research.