Abstract Number: 480 Associations between adherence to National Dietary Recommendations and colorectal cancer: Results from the multiethnic cohort study Sangita Sharma, Suzanne P. Murphy, Lynne Wilkens, Lucy Shen, Abraham Nomura, Brian Henderson, Laurence N. Kolonel. Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI and University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer in men and women in the United States (US). In 2002, it was estimated that there were 148,300 incident cases in the US. There is some evidence to suggest that diets high in vegetables may protect against CRC, although the evidence for fruits is less certain. The aim of this study was to determine if degree of adherence to the Dietary Recommendations given in the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Guide Pyramid (FGP) is a predictor of CRC. The FGP recommendations are designed to help Americans make healthful food choices and reduce the risk of chronic diseases including cancer. The FGP recommends a range of daily servings based on age and caloric intake from five major groups: grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy and meat. We present data from the Multiethnic Cohort Study which collected dietary and other data on 215,000 subjects from five ethnic groups (African American, Japanese American, Native Hawaiians, Latinos and Caucasians) in Hawaii and Los Angeles at baseline in 1993-96. Subjects were aged 45-75 years and completed a detailed 17 page quantitative food frequency questionnaire. CRC cases were identified by the Hawaii and California Tumor Registries. Preliminary results, using logistic regression, based on 1533 CRC cases and matched controls, show after adjusting for ethnicity, age and energy intake, that subjects who adhered to the fruit recommendation had a 14% lower risk of CRC compared to those who did not adhere (OR 0.86 (p=0.01). For vegetables, similar results were seen when we compared those who adhered to the recommendations vs those who did not (OR 0.87 (p=0.02). Subjects who adhered to the fruit and vegetable recommendations had a 19% lower risk of CRC compared to those who did not adhere (OR 0.81 (p=0.001). When we examined the degree of adherence to the recommendations we found that those who adhered to the fruit recommendation at 150% (1.5 times the recommended number of servings) had a 22% lower risk of CRC than those who adhered at less than 50% (OR 0.78, P for trend 0.0008). A similar pattern was seen with degree of adherence to the vegetable recommendations (OR 0.77, P for trend 0.02). Degree of adherence to the dietary recommendations for fruits and vegetables is associated with CRC. The higher the degree of adherence, the greater the protection for CRC. Intakes in excess of the recommendations provide more protection. This work was supported by The National Cancer Institute (grant number NCI R01 CA54821), and The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA-NRI New Investigator Award, grant number 2002-00793). Presenter: Sangita Sharma Affiliation: Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI; E-mail: gsharma@crch.hawaii.edu Proceedings of the AACR, Volume 45, March 2004. Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.