Studying Cancer:
Learn how scientists research diet and cancer

It sounds like a simple question: Can what we eat influence our risk of cancer? In fact, finding the answer is a complex puzzle worthy of Sherlock Holmes.

Do you eat the exact same things every day? Of course not. Most people’s diets are complex, and they change over weeks, months and years. To pinpoint associations between diet and cancer, researchers must dig through this massive menu to isolate the specific effects of individual foods.

Each scientific study provides another clue to the evolving mystery of how diet affects cancer. But as with any good mystery, some clues hold more weight than others. Since cancer isn’t going to confess to what caused it, no single piece of evidence gives us all the answers. The “body of evidence” formed by many studies must be considered as a whole as we investigate the mystery of the diet-cancer connection.

Each kind of study has its pluses and minuses. Let’s consider: Epidemiological Studies, Laboratory Studies and Controlled Trials.