Dietary Factors And Cancer Risk

The association is strongest for dietary fat, which may contribution to development of breast and colon cancers. Once indication of this relationship comes from comparing fat consumption with cancer incidence in different national populations. For example, there is clearly a strong cross-country correlation between dietary fat intake and breast cancer frequency. The drawback of such correlations, however, is that there are many other differences between the countries under study besides fat intake. For example, with the exception of Japan and a few others, those countries with high rates of breast cancer also have higher levels of economic development. Consequently, there is also a good correlation between gross national product and breast cancer incidence; although this is not taken to indicate that economic development causes cancer.