Smitha Padmanabhan1, Varna Taranikanti2*
1Food Science and Nutrition Department, CAMS, 2Department of Human and Clinical Anatomy, College of Medicine, Sultan Qaboos University
* Correspondence: Dr. Varna Taranikanti, MBBS, MD, PhD. Email: [email protected]
ABSTRACT
The diet and genetics may potentially synergize for the development of colorectal cancer (CRC). Diet in particular has been the subject of much research because CRC affects millions of people worldwide indicating a global exposure and the rate of CRC incidence in Westernized countries is higher than developing countries indicating dietary habits and life style differences between these countries. Also migrant populations moved from countries of low incidence to the West adopt the high incidence trend of the new country. These observations brought a lot of attention to study the intake of various foods on cancer occurrence and to identify a preventive or causal link between nutrients and CRC. The impact of diet, as a common exposure, on CRC risk has been investigated using three different approaches; human, animal and molecular genetics studies. Animal and molecular genetic studies have successfully identified mechanisms, gene-nutrient interaction, by which dietary factors modify carcinogenesis. Meanwhile human-based studies revealed different conclusions and were observational studies depending on the study population, rather than being evidence-based studies. This review article aims to discuss the current seven hypotheses developed by different human-based studies correlating diet to colorectal cancer risk.
Keywords: Diet, Colorectal Cancer, Human Studies
Citation: Padmanabhan S, TaranikantiV. Diet and Colorectal Cancer: Hypothetical Theories. Canad J Clin Nutr 2017; 5 (1): 10-16.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14206/canad.j.clin.nutr.2017.01.02
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