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Dietary fat, cholesterol and colorectal cancer in a prospective study
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  • Regular Article
  • Open access
  • Published: 31 July 2001

Dietary fat, cholesterol and colorectal cancer in a prospective study

  • R Järvinen1,
  • P Knekt2,3,
  • T Hakulinen4,5,
  • H Rissanen2 &
  • …
  • M Heliövaara2,3 

British Journal of Cancer volume 85, pages 357–361 (2001)Cite this article

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Abstract

The relationships between consumption of total fat, major dietary fatty acids, cholesterol, consumption of meat and eggs, and the incidence of colorectal cancers were studied in a cohort based on the Finnish Mobile Clinic Health Examination Survey. Baseline (1967–1972) information on habitual food consumption over the preceding year was collected from 9959 men and women free of diagnosed cancer. A total of 109 new colorectal cancer cases were ascertained late 1999. High cholesterol intake was associated with increased risk for colorectal cancers. The relative risk between the highest and lowest quartiles of dietary cholesterol was 3.26 (95% confidence interval 1.54–6.88) after adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, occupation, smoking, geographic region, energy intake and consumption of vegetables, fruits and cereals. Consumption of total fat and intake of saturated, monounsaturated, or polyunsaturated fatty acids were not significantly associated with colorectal cancer risk. Nonsignificant associations were found between consumption of meat and eggs and colorectal cancer risk. The results of the present study indicate that high cholesterol intake may increase colorectal cancer risk, but do not suggest the presence of significant effects of dietary fat intake on colorectal cancer incidence. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign

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  • 16 November 2011

    This paper was modified 12 months after initial publication to switch to Creative Commons licence terms, as noted at publication

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Nutrition, University of Kuopio, P.O. Box 1627, Kuopio, FIN-70211, Finland

    R Järvinen

  2. National Public Health Institute, Mannerheimintie 166, Helsinki, FIN-00300, Finland

    P Knekt, H Rissanen & M Heliövaara

  3. The Social Insurance Institution, Helsinki and Turku, Finland

    P Knekt & M Heliövaara

  4. Finnish Cancer Registry, Liisankatu 21 B, Helsinki, FIN-00170, Finland

    T Hakulinen

  5. Unit of Cancer Epidemiology, Karolinska Institute, Radiumhemmet, Stockholm, Sweden

    T Hakulinen

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From twelve months after its original publication, this work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

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Järvinen, R., Knekt, P., Hakulinen, T. et al. Dietary fat, cholesterol and colorectal cancer in a prospective study. Br J Cancer 85, 357–361 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1054/bjoc.2001.1906

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  • Received: 15 November 2000

  • Revised: 02 April 2001

  • Accepted: 20 April 2001

  • Published: 31 July 2001

  • Issue date: 03 August 2001

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1054/bjoc.2001.1906

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Keywords

  • colorectal neoplasms
  • dietary cholesterol
  • eggs
  • fats
  • meat
  • protein

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