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Plant-Based Diets and Cancer Risk: What is the Evidence?
Vanessa DeClercq1,2, Jacob T Nearing3, Ellen Sweeney4
1Department of Pharmacology, Dalhousie University, Room 5-D Tupper Medical Building, 5850 College Street, Halifax, NS, B3H 4R2, Canada. vanessa.de.clercq@dal.ca.
Purpose Of Review:
The purpose of this review is to summarize the recent (past 5 years) available evidence regarding the association between plant-based diets on cancer risk from clinical trials and observational studies. Biological mechanisms and gaps in the current literature will also be discussed.
Recent Findings:
There is a lack of intervention studies but there are abundant observational studies assessing the association between plant-based diets and cancer risk, including multiple longitudinal cohort studies and similar data from case-control studies that demonstrate a decreased overall cancer risk with plant-based diets. Case-control studies support a decreased risk of colorectal and breast cancers with plant-based diets, but results for specific cancers remain inconsistent in cohort studies. Current evidence from observational studies indicates an inverse association between plant-based diets and overall cancer risk. Future research should include intervention studies, address inconsistencies in dietary assessment methods and provide greater detail on underrepresented groups.
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