European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition

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The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition ( EPIC study , literally: Prospective European study on the relationship between nutrition and cancer) was a prospective , multi-center study running from 1992 to 2000 .

motivation

The aim was to obtain a broad database to research the relationships between diet, lifestyle, metabolism, hereditary factors, cancer and other chronic diseases that may have diet-related causes, such as type 2 diabetes . The consumption of fruit, vegetables (leafy vegetables, fruit vegetables, root vegetables, cabbage, mushrooms and onions / garlic) as well as that of fruit and vegetable juices were examined.

concept

23 centers in ten European countries with 519,000 study participants were involved in the study. They were repeatedly asked about their lifestyle habits and their health developments were observed. In addition, blood samples and measured values were available from all test subjects for further analysis. The executive body of the study was the EPIC Steering Committee. The central database is located at the International Agency for Research of Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization in Lyon . The project was funded by the European Commission .

German center

The German Institute for Nutrition Research Potsdam-Rehbrücke (DIfE) is a German center . In the Potsdam EPIC sub-study, over 27,000 study participants were observed.

Output data

The average age of the study participants at the time of the first data collection was 51.5 years. 65.4 percent of the participants were female. 14,723 of the study participants died during the mean follow-up period of 9.7 years.

Partial results

BMI

Participants with a high BMI were more likely to die of cancer or cardiovascular disease compared to participants with a medium BMI. In contrast, study participants with a low BMI died more frequently from diseases of the respiratory system.

In the first ten years, 1,074 study participants developed lung cancer , of which 860 people had data available for detailed analysis.

fruit and vegetables

An evaluation of the EPIC study published in the Journal of the National Cancer in 2010 begins with the quote (translated): “It is generally accepted that cancer can be prevented by a high intake of fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, the inconsistent results of many studies have failed to establish an inverse relationship between fruit and vegetable consumption and general cancer risk. ”In short, there was no statistically significant influence of fruit and vegetable consumption on the risk of developing cancer get sick, found. There was also no significant evidence in the figures for protection against other diseases. The maxim “ 5 times a day fruit and vegetables ” recommended years ago was based on desirable health-political assumptions, which, however, lacked a scientific basis.

Meat consumption and mortality

Rohrman et al. published an analysis of EPIC data in March 2013 examining the association between consumption of red meat , processed meat and poultry and the risk of early death. The researchers evaluated the data from a total of 448,568 men and women who at the start of the study had not yet had cancer and had not had a stroke or heart attack . All participants knew how they ate, how much they moved, whether they smoked and what their body mass index was. At the start of the study, all participants were between 35 and 69 years old. They came from ten European countries and were followed for an average of 12.7 years. 26,344 participants died during this period. The analysis showed that the consumption of processed meat (i.e. sausage ) correlated statistically significantly with a higher mortality rate : Those participants who ate more than 160 grams of processed meat per day had a 44 percent higher risk of dying during the study period, as participants who only ate around 20 grams per day. No statistically significant association could be proven for the increased consumption of poultry and red meat. The scientists explained the analysis results with the fact that processed meat often has a much higher fat content than unprocessed meat and is treated with table salt and other potentially harmful substances. As part of the analysis, it had to be taken into account that people with different eating habits often also have different lifestyles : For example, people who eat a lot of processed meat products tend to have an unhealthy lifestyle in other areas, while vegetarians and health-conscious non-vegetarians tend to exercise more on average drive, eat a lot of fruit and vegetables, consume less alcohol and smoke less. Rohrman et al. therefore tried to exclude the known effects of smoking, obesity and other factors on health in their statistical analysis of the EPIC data.

literature

  • Anon: Fruits and vegetables (hardly) protect against cancer. Deutsches Ärzteblatt , April 7, 2010
  • Bofetta P et al .: Fruit and vegetable intake and overall cancer risk in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2010; 102: 529-537
  • Anthony B. Miller et al .: Fruits and Vegetables and Lung Cancer: Findings from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. Int. J. Cancer: 108, 269-276 (2004).
  • Khan, AE, Gallo, V. et al .; EPIC Group .: Diabetes and the risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. Haematologica 93: 842-850 (2008).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fruit and vegetables (hardly) protect against cancer.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Deutsches Ärzteblatt from April 7, 2010@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.aerzteblatt.de  
  2. ↑ Boffetta, P. et.al .: Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Overall Cancer Risk in the European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). Archived from the original on August 19, 2010. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: oxfordjournals.org (Ed.): J Natl Cancer Inst . 102, No. 8, February 18, 2010, pp. 529-537. doi : 10.1093 / jnci / djq072 . PMID 20371762 . Retrieved February 26, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / jnci.oxfordjournals.org
  3. ^ Udo Pollmer: The European epic of silence - the EPIC study . Germany radio. May 9, 2010. Retrieved February 26, 2011.
  4. ↑ Sabine Rohrmann et al .: Meat consumption and mortality - results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. In: BMC Medicine , March 7, 2013; 11:63. doi : 10.1186 / 1741-7015-11-63 PMID 23497300

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