A Nutritional Approach to the Prevention of Cancer: from Assessment to Personalized Intervention

Abstract

Among lifestyle factors, nutrition is one of the most important determinants of health, and represents a pivotal element of cancer risk. Nonetheless, epidemiological evidences of the relationship between several cancers and specific foods and nutrients is still inadequate, and solid conclusions are missing. Indeed, caloric restriction without malnutrition is associated to cancer prevention. Food may be also the primary route of exposure to contaminants such as metals, persistent organic pollutants, and pesticides. Exposuredisease associations and the interplay with genetic susceptibility requires further studies on genetic variation, environment, lifestyle, and chronic disease in order to eliminate and reduce associated health risks, thus contributing to improve health outcomes for the population. A primary nutritional approach for Active and Healthy Ageing (AHA) has been developed by the Nutrition group of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on AHA. The working group on lifestyles of the Italian Ministry of Health has developed a comprehensive approach to adequate nutrition using a consensus methodology to collect and integrate the available evidences from the literature and from the Italian experiences at the regional level, to raise the interest of other experts and relevant stakeholders to outline and scale-up joint strategies for a primary nutritional approach to cancer prevention.

Keywords: Nutritional interventions; cancer prevention; lifestyle and cancer risk.

Figure 1.

Relationship between food intake and cancer.

Figure 2.

Obesity and cancer mortality.