Cancer Research - Europa

EPIC
European Prospective Investigation
into Cancer, Chronic Diseases,
Nutrition and Lifestyle
Problem
There are a series of complex relationships between a) the
consumption of major foods and alcoholic beverages by different
European populations, and b) the anthropometric
characteristics and physical activity (PA) levels of diff erent
European populations and the causation/prevention of
diff erent cancers, coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke.
Aim
Keywords | Diet | lifestyle | physical activity | coronary heart disease (CHD) | stroke | chronic disease |
The objective of this action is to reinforce and expand the
collaboration between 27 European institutions so as to
ensure that there is a major European resource containing:
• a very large database of 521 000 European subjects
from ten European countries who provided detailed
information on diet, lifestyle and health status between
1992 and 1999;
• a bio-repository of blood samples collected at baseline
and stores in liquid nitrogen;
• follow-up data on over 28 000 cancer cases diagnosed
after baseline, and over 15 500 deaths from all causes.
This will produce a large mass of data relevant for the identifi
cation of nutritional and environmental causes of cancer
and other chronic diseases, and this knowledge will contribute
to the development of eff ective public health strategies
for the prevention of cancer, CHD and stroke.
This will also enhance the development of statistical methods
for multicentre, Europe-wide studies on diet and chronic
disease.
Expected results
New scientifi c knowledge will be gained on the roles that
diet, obesity, physical activity, alcohol, tobacco and socioeconomic
factors play in the risk of developing cancer,
coronary heart disease and stroke in the ten European countries
studied. This will include:
• a greater understanding of the complex relationships
between these health outcomes, and diet and alcoholic
beverage intake;
• updated results on the health-damaging eff ects of
tobacco and the benefi ts of quitting tobacco;
• the identifi cation of long-term disease risk prediction of
biomarkers of diet, aiming to identify new biomarkers
for the identifi cation of subjects at increased cancer
risk due to nutritional imbalances;
• methodological guidelines on quality/standardised methods
for measuring diet and PA.
Scientifi c reports and papers will be published.
Potential applications
Recommendations for public health policies on strategies
for the prevention of cancer, CHD and stroke in Europe,
through the improvement of dietary habits and the promotion
of a healthy lifestyle.
98 CANCER RESEARCH PROJECTS FUNDED UNDER THE SIXTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME