Dietary fat, cholesterol and colorectal cancer in a prospective study

The relationships between consumption of total fat, major dietary fatty aci ds, cholesterol, consumption of meat and eggs, and the incidence of colorec tal cancers were studied in a cohort based on the Finnish Mobile Clinic Hea lth Examination Survey. Baseline (1967-1972) information on habitual food c onsumption over the preceding year was collected from 9959 men and women fr ee of diagnosed cancer. A total of 109 new colorectal cancer cases were asc ertained late 1999. High cholesterol intake was associated with increased r isk for colorectal cancers. The relative risk between the highest and lowes t quartiles of dietary cholesterol was 3.26 (95% confidence interval 1.54-6 .88) after adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, occupation, smoking, ge ographic region, energy intake and consumption of vegetables, fruits and ce reals. Consumption of total fat and intake of saturated, monounsaturated, o r polyunsaturated fatty acids were not significantly associated with colore ctal cancer risk. Nonsignificant associations were found between consumptio n of meat and eggs and colorectal cancer risk. The results of the present s tudy indicate that high cholesterol intake may increase colorectal cancer r isk, but do not suggest the presence of significant effects of dietary fat intake on colorectal cancer incidence. (C) 2001 Cancer Research Campaign.