AICR's Landmark Diet & Cancer Report Extends Its Reach to China

American Institute for Cancer Research
Friday, 7 May 1999

The American Institute for Cancer Research's landmark publication, Food, Nutrition and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective, the most comprehensive report ever written in the field of diet and cancer, now becomes an essential part of nutrition education in China. Today's launch of the Chinese edition of this major report has brought some of the world's top scientists in the area of diet and cancer to Beijing to discuss the report's findings and directions for future research.

A panel of expert scientists spent three years reviewing more than 4,500 studies while developing the report and the new dietary recommendations for cancer prevention that are included in it. The 670-page report, published by the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) and its European affiliate, the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), is the first international review of diet and cancer. More than 30,000 copies have been distributed to public health policy-makers, health professionals and cancer researchers throughout the world.

AICR/WCRF chief executive Marilyn Gentry comments, "We are proud that the findings of our report are recognized as valid in China, as they also have been recently in India and Japan." She congratulated Dr. Junshi Chen, a member of the expert panel that produced the report, and other colleagues at the Chinese Academy of Preventative Medicine and the University of Shanghai Press, for the wonderful achievement represented by the Chinese language edition.

Dr. Ritva Butrum, Ph.D.,Vice President of Research at AICR, adds, "AICR/WCRF has supported research in China for twenty years. The translation of this report into Chinese will help raise awareness of its important messages, and their implications for international agriculture and food policy. We look forward to continuing our work with our friends and colleagues here in China."

AICR's original venture in China was the funding of Cornell University's China Health Study, which examined local regions to determine the dietary and lifestyle factors responsible for the exceptional geographic localization of cancers and various other diseases.

WCRF/AICR continues its special commitment to the support of research into diet and cancer prevention worldwide. With a WCRF grant, Dr. Max Parkin, chief of the unit of Descriptive Epidemiology at the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon France, is conducting a study in China on aflotoxins, associated with an increased risk of primary liver cancer: they are produced by fungi that infect grain and other crops in many parts of the world.

"It's suspected that individuals have different susceptibility to aflatoxins, depending on their genetically determined ability to synthesize certain enzymes. Our study in China will quantify the risk posed by exposure to these chemicals, " says Parkin.

Funded by a grant from AICR, Dr. Zhiping Huang, Assisted Professor in the Division of Epidemiolgy, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, with collaborators from the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine in Beijing, is conducting a validation study for a Chinese food-frequency questionnaire. This questionnaire should become an essential tool in future studies on diet and the prevention of cancer in China.

For more information, or to contact American Institute for Cancer Research, see their website at: www.aicr.org