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AICR Press Releases
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Experts: Breastfeeding Protects Moms from Breast Cancer
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IN THE NEWS: Not Smoking One of Many Lifestyle Changes to Prevent Cancer
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Help Kids’ Plates “Go Green” on St. Pat’s Day and Beyond
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Preventing Colon Cancer: Six Steps to Reduce Your Risk
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Issue Number - 76August 10, 2011
Scientist in the Spotlight: Christine Friedenreich, PhD
Q: You were one of the early researchers looking at physical activity and cancer risk: how did you become interested in the area? A: I had done a lot of work on diet and breast cancer risk and I had also worked on smoking. When I came to Calgary, I wanted to stay with the theme of modifiable lifestyle factors and physical activity was a logical transition. We've known for a long time that physical activity reduced the risk for chronic diseases but the literature on cancer was nascent. I started to look at physical activity and breast cancer. Q: What has your research shown overall? A: The take home message: you can benefit from doing moderate activity, like brisk walking. In breast cancer, we're seeing risk reductions of about 30 to 50 percent. With prostate cancer the evidence isn't as strong but it's still there, about 10 to 30 percent lower risk. For endometrial cancer we are finding stronger effects, about 30 percent risk reduction with more physical activity. Q: Are you also looking at the mechanisms? A: We published a paper in 2009 where we developed a biological model of how we think physical activity influences the risk of postmenopausal breast cancer. The three main pathways are body fat, chronic inflammation, and insulin resistance. What we're dong now is putting healthy post-menopausal women on an exercise program and seeing how it influences biomarkers. "[W]e had asked one group of women to exercise 225 minutes per week. ... After a year, there was phenomenal adherence and we did find a strong effect on body fat, endogenous hormones, estrogens, and insulin.. In an earlier trial – the ALPHA trial – we had asked one group of women to exercise 225 minutes per week. The other group was inactive. After a year, there was phenomenal adherence and we did find a strong effect on body fat, endogenous hormones, estrogens, and insulin. Now, in the BETA trial, every women is getting randomized to 150 or 300 minutes per week and we're looking at biomarkers. Q: Have you looked at the role of exercise post-diagnoses? A: Yes, we're doing studies in cancer patients – putting them on exercise trials and seeing how that helps. We have developed a framework in this area of research along the whole continuum, through palliation. For the case-control trials, we followed up with the people diagnosed with prostate cancer and are now analyzing to see how exercise reduces risk of dying. We're doing the same thing for the endometrial trial. Q: The session you're co-chairing for the AICR conference features sedentary behavior. Why did you want to include this? A: Now there's a big focus on sedentary behavior as a separate entity. The research started out more in cardiovascular disease and diabetes than in cancer. But in the last couple years the research has been in cancer. It's looking at how it affects biomarkers and it doesn't really matter whether you're looking at diabetes, heart disease or cancer if your looking at how it influences shared biomarkers.
A: When I look at the women in the BETA trial, these women come up with the most unbelievable testimonials… they just feel so fantastic about themselves. I see people all the time who have cancer and it's nice to be able to work on the prevention side or putting the control back into the patient's hand. This is something that is very empowering for people and it's such a positive area to work in. There are so many benefits to be physically active – we are just adding cancer to that list. Excerpted from ScienceNow.
In Brief: The Cost of Healthy Eating?
The study, published in Health Affairs, examined the financial costs of meeting selected elements of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines: consuming more potassium, dietary fiber, vitamin D, and calcium; decreasing calorie intake from saturated fat and added sugar. Researchers gathered nutrient and cost estimates from questionnaires completed by 1,123 residents of a Washington state county. Consistent with national statistics, the average intake of the four highlighted nutrients fell below recommended levels. Increasing the amount of potassium to recommended levels was the most expensive, adding $380 per year to the average consumer's food bill. And each time consumers took in 1 percent more of their daily calories from saturated fat and added sugar, their food costs declined. The study analyzed the cost of increasing consumption of each recommended nutrient separately, rather than in combination. As the authors note, many vegetables and fruits contain more than one of the recommended nutrients. Source: Monsivais P, Aggarwal A, Drewnowski A. "Following federal guidelines to increase nutrient consumption may lead to higher food costs for consumers." Health Aff. 2011 Aug 3. Research Roundup
Taller Women May Face Higher Cancer Risk
Study researchers pulled data on height and cancer from 1.3 million middle-aged U.K. women. The women were tracked for almost 10 years, during which almost 100,000 of the women were diagnosed with cancer. For every 4 inch-increase in height from an average of 5 feet, the risk of cancer increased by 16 percent overall. The researchers looked at 17 cancer sites and the findings were statistically significant for 10 of them: cancers of the colon, rectum, malignant melanoma, breast, endometrium, ovary, kidney, CNS, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and leukemia. The study took into account 12 personal characteristics, finding that such factors as socioeconomics, alcohol intake, activity level and body weight did not alter the risk. (Smoking was the only factor that slightly altered the height-related risk of cancer. Taller women were at a lower risk for smoking-related cancers than for other cancers, but only in current smokers.) Height is determined by genetic, environmental, hormonal and nutritional factors acting mostly in the first 20 years of life. AICR's expert report and its updates found that the taller people are the higher their risk for cancers of the colorectum, pancreas, breast and ovary. It's not tallness itself that is the culprit, note the report's authors, but the factors that influence a person's height, such as nutrition. These factors may, in turn, influence hormone levels that play a role in cancer development. Source: Green, Jane et al. Height and cancer incidence in the Million Women Study: prospective cohort, and meta-analysis of prospective studies of height and total cancer risk. The Lancet Oncology, Volume 12, Issue 8, Pages 785 - 794, August 2011. Testing Restaurant Calorie Counts
Study researchers analyzed 269 food items from 42 randomly selected chain restaurants. The restaurants, located in Massachusetts, Arkansas and Indiana, included both quick-serve and sit down. The analysis found that 40 percent of the foods were at least 10 calories higher than the stated calories; 52 percent were at least 10 calories lower than the stated calories. But almost one in five of the food items (19 percent) contained at least 100 calories more than the posted calories. For all foods, the discrepancy in calorie counts was found for sit-down restaurants compared with quick-serve restaurants. The largest inaccuracies of foods that contained more calories than stated were found among soups, salads, carbohydrate-rich side dishes, and desserts. Given that almost half of U.S. residents eat out at least three meals per week, according to the study authors, having an accurate calorie count from restaurants is an important part of weight control. Source: Urban LE, et al. "Accuracy of stated energy contents of restaurant foods." JAMA. 2011 Jul 20; 306(3): 287-93.
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The role of activity in preventing cancer isn't all about going to the gym, says Christine Friedenreich, PhD, Senior Research Epidemiologist at Alberta Health Services-Cancer Care in Canada. Friedenreich, one of the leading experts in the field of physical activity and cancer, explains how activity throughout life may help in prevention and survivorship. 
Cutting down on saturated fats and added sugars while eating more foods that contain four recommended nutrients may add hundreds of dollars to the average consumer's food bill, suggests a new study.
The taller women are, the greater their risk for at least ten types of cancer, suggests a large new study published online in Lancet Oncology. The study adds to the evidence showing tallness heightens cancer risk and looks at how height may influence different cancers.
Restaurants, on average, post accurate calorie information but almost one in five food items may contain more than 100 calories more than posted, suggests a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. 
