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More veggies may curb pancreatic cancer risk -study

Posted on: Friday, 16 September 2005, 13:39 CDT

By Susan Heavey

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Eating more raw vegetables every day, especially yellow and dark green ones, may help cut the risk of pancreatic cancer in half, according to a study released on Thursday.

Researchers at the University of California in San Francisco found eating five or more servings of yams, corn, carrots, onions or other similar vegetables is linked with lower risk of the disease -- one of the most deadly and hard-to-treat cancers.

Dark green leafy vegetables, such as spinach and kale, and cruciferous ones like broccoli also worked well, they said.

"Finding strong confirmation that simple life choices can provide significant protection from pancreatic cancer may be one of the most practical ways to reduce the incidence of this dreadful disease," said Elizabeth Holly, the study's senior author and a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the school.

Light green veggies and tomatoes were slightly less beneficial, according to the study, which was funded by the National Cancer Institute.

The results will be published in the September issue of the medical journal Cancer, Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

In interviews with 2,233 men and women, including 532 pancreatic cancer patients, researchers cataloged how much produce they ate for a year. They also asked about other factors such as overall diet and smoking.

They then compared the habits of the cancer patients to the 1,701 others, who were randomly selected. Those who ate at least five servings had half the cancer risk compared with those who ate two or fewer servings.

They said they used that approach rather than tracking undiagnosed patients to see which ones developed the disease because pancreatic cancer patients generally do not live long enough to follow up.

Most patients are diagnosed with advanced stages of the disease. The pancreas, which helps digestion, is hidden by other organs, making it hard to detect problems. Survival is usually months and fewer than 5 percent of patients live for five years.

Pancreatic cancer is rare. About 32,180 new cases are expected to be diagnosed in the United States this year, according to National Cancer Institute experts, and 31,800 people are expected to die from the disease.

Researchers also found eating fruit, especially oranges and other citric ones, was also helpful but far less beneficial than their vegetable counterparts.

The way the food was prepared also seemed to make a difference, they said, with cooked vegetables providing fewer benefits.

Source: REUTERS

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