Dietary practices and cancer mortality in China

An ecological survey on diet, life style and cancer mortality was carried out in 65 rural counties in China, using a questionnaire comprising 285 questions on environmental factors, dietary practices and other life style characteristics; in addition, blood, urine and food were collected and analysed. Two interpretations of preliminary data are presented. One is for the finding of a positive correlation between a latent variable, namely general nutritional status, and cancer mortality rates; the other is for a positive correlation between lipid peroxidation (plasma lipid peroxidase and copper) and oesophageal and gastric cancer mortality, and a negative correlation between dietary oxidants (plasma selenium, ascorbic acid and retinol) and mortality from oesophageal and gastric cancer.