malik@star.DEC (Karl Malik ZK01-1/F22 1-1440) (02/12/85)
From The Associated Press Fri 08-FEB-1985 10:29 Milk-Cancer Colorectal Cancer Can Be Stymied By Milk, Researcher Says SAN DIEGO (AP) - Three glasses a day of low-fat milk will go a long way toward reducing the risk of colorectal cancer, according to a study led by a San Diego researcher. The study, conducted over 20 years and involving 1,954 men, found that those who consumed foods rich in vitamin D and calcium had the cancer only a third as often as those who rarely ate from the food group. Those with the lowest risk drank the equivalent of three 8-ounce glasses of milk a day,- about a glass of milk at each meal, said Dr. Cedric Garland, an assistant professor of community medicine at the Univrsity of California at San Diego. Garland said the study cannot show conclusively that vitamin D or calcium protects against colorectal cancer, but makes a strong case. ``It was a pretty dramatic drop in risk associated with drinking three glasses of milk a day,'' he said. Garland suggested that consumers drink low-fat milk to avoid risks for heart or blood vessel disease, and said vitamin pills or calcium tablets might not produce the same effect as the milk. Garland's work apparently is the first to link calcium and vitamin D to colon cancer prevention, said Dr. Sidney Weinhouse, biochemistry professor at the Temple University School of Medicine and board member of the American Cancer Society. In a telephone interview today, Weinhouse said he had not seen Garland's study but that it sounded interesting and he knew no reason to doubt its results. Colorectal cancer is cancer of the colon or the rectum. It is the third leading cause of death from cancer, following cancer of the lung and breast. This year, there will be an estimated 96,000 cases of colon cancer and 42,000 cases of rectal cancer in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. Garland's study, which will appear in the upcoming edition of the British medical journal Lancet, was based on the dietary and life histories of men employed as telephone assemblers by a Western Electric Company plant in Chicago. It began in 1957 when nutritionists, interested in studying cholesterol and heart disease, compiled a 28-day history of the study goup's eating habits. The men were examined annually until 1969, with vital statistics obtained on the 20th anniversary of the initial examination in 1977. The researchers found that 49 of the men who developed colorectal cancer had a significantly lower dietary intake of calcium and vitamin D than the rest of the group. The researchers adjusted their statistics for cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, age and calories obtained from fat.