[The European prospective investigation about cancer and nutrition (EPIC)]

EPIC is a prospective multi-center study coordinated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) operating under the WHO which commenced in 1993 with the collecting of data and blood samples at twenty-three centers in ten European countries (Germany, Denmark, Spain, France, Greece, the Netherlands, Italy, Norway, the United Kingdom and Sweden). In Spain, this study was conducted in five geographic areas (Asturias, Granada, Guipuzcoa, Murcia and Navarre). This study included a total of 519,978 individuals (366,521 of whom were females), blood samples for laboratory analysis being available for a total of 385,719 of these individuals. To date, a total of 24,195 incident cancer cases have been identified. The results of the food intake comparison among the twenty-three European centers were published in 2002, in a European Nutrition journal supplement. The initial EPIC results concerning the relationship between diet and cancer show the intake of fiber, fruits and vegetables to have an effect on protect against colon and rectal cancer, the intake of fruits to have an effect on protect against lung cancer and the intake of fruits and vegetables on the upper digestive tract, whilst a high intake of fruits and vegetables has been shown to have no effect on prostate cancer. Using a seven-day diary for evaluating saturated fat intake, a high intake of saturated fats has been shown to increase the risk of breast cancer.