Experts Concerned About Possible Misleading Interpretations of Vegetables, Fruit, and Breast Cancer Study.(health aspects of consumption of fruits and vegetables and the reduction of breast cancer risk)

2001 APR 26 - (NewsRx Network) - Prominent cancer experts are coming forward to dispel misleading interpretations arising from a scientific study appearing in the February 14, 2001, Journal of the American Medical Association.

Concerned that important limitations inherent in the study are being overlooked, cancer researchers across the U.S. are speaking up, urging the media and the public to take a second look at what this study does -- and does not -- say about vegetables, fruits, and breast cancer.

The cancer experts pointed out that:

* The JAMA study was in fact an analysis of nine previous studies that were all of the same design, a fact that limits its ability to reflect reality.

* Subjects in the study ate uniformly small amounts of fruits and vegetables, well below the five to nine daily servings recommended for cancer prevention.

* Compelling evidence from different methods of investigating the diet contradicts the findings of this single new study.

The article in question, entitled "Intake of fruits and vegetables and risk of breast cancer," by Smith-Warner et al. (see also Women's Health Weekly, March 8, 2001), suggests that consumption of vegetables and fruits offers no protection against breast cancer. The researchers involved in the JAMA study combined data from nine previously published cohort studies. (A cohort study, which follows the diets of large groups of healthy individuals over time, is one of several possible methods for studying the diet-cancer link.) The authors compared the diets of those subjects who contracted breast cancer with those who did not, and concluded that consumption of vegetables and fruits provided no protection.