Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2008 Mar;37(1):73-82, vi.
doi: 10.1016/j.gtc.2007.12.008.

Prevention of colorectal cancer: diet, chemoprevention, and lifestyle

James R Marshall  1
Affiliations
Review

Prevention of colorectal cancer: diet, chemoprevention, and lifestyle

James R Marshall. Gastroenterol Clin North Am. 2008 Mar.

Abstract

This article focuses on preventing the initiation and promotion of neoplastic growth in colon cancer, particularly with dietary measures. A goal of dietary epidemiology is to identify chemopreventive agents and strategies. The effects of diet are analyzed by observational approaches and experimental dietary, nutritional, or chemopreventive interventions. Short-term trials that alter intermediate biomarkers that are more sensitive than the adenoma to interventions may be necessary. The same logic needs to be applied to chemoprevention. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, calcium, and selenium have some individual effects that could be potentiated if added together. The current evidence is that the combined effect of all three agents is modest, compared with the effects of screening, or even those of smoking cessation.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Mandel JS, Church TR, Bond JH, et al. The effect of fecal occult-blood screening on the incidence of colorectal cancer. N Engl J Med. 2000;343(22):1603–1607. - PubMed
    1. Byers T, Levin B, Rothenberger D, Dodd GD, Smith RA For the American Cancer Society Detection and Treatment Advisory Group on Colorectal Cancer. American cancer society guidelines for screening and surveillance for early detection of colorectal polyps and cancer: Update 1997. CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. 1997;47(3):154–160. - PubMed
    1. Lance P, Grossman S, Marshall JR. Screening for colorectal cancer. Seminars in Gastrointestinal Diseases. 1992;3:22–33.
    1. Marshall JR, Fay D, Lance P. Potential costs of flexible sigmoidoscopy-based colorectal cancer screening. Gastroenterology. 1996;111(6):1411–1417. - PubMed
    1. Schatzkin A, Freedman LS, Schiffman MH, Dawsey SM. Validation of intermediate end points in cancer research. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1990;82(22):1746–1752. - PubMed