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Sushi
May Protect Against
Rare Type of Lung Cancer
LONDON
(Reuters Health) - The Japanese love of fresh fish--particularly
sushi--may protect them against lung cancer, according to a report
in this week's British Journal of Cancer.
Dietary factors
such as frequent consumption of soybean products, green tea and
fish have long been thought to be one reason why Japanese lung
cancer deaths and incidence rates are less than two-thirds those
in the United States and the UK. However, study findings have
often been inconclusive or contradictory.
To investigate
the issue further, scientists from the Cancer Center Research
Institute and Cancer Center Hospital of Aichi, Japan, looked at
the diets of over 1,000 Japanese men and women with different
types of lung cancer and compared them with over 4,000 healthy
individuals.
The study
found that people who ate the most fresh fish were only half as
likely to develop rare cancers of the lung called adenocarcinoma
compared with people who ate the least fresh fish. Dried and salted
fish consumption was not associated with any protective effect
against lung cancer.
Fresh fish
rich in fish oil containing polyunsaturated fatty acids may be
the reason for the protective effect, the researchers noted. ``The
relatively lower mortality rate of lung cancer in Japan might
thus be at least partly attributable to higher consumption of
fish,'' they report.
Even though
the protective effect was only significant in the case of adenocarcinomas,
a particularly rare type of lung cancer, lead study author Professor
Toshiro Takezaki said in a news release, ``Japanese people love
their fresh fish, particularly sushi. We think that is why, even
though the Japanese smoke as much as people in the UK, their rate
of lung cancer is only two-thirds as high.''
Professor
Gordon McVie, director general of The Cancer Research Campaign,
which publishes the British Journal of Cancer, added, ``This research
once again emphasises the important interaction of diet with tobacco
in deciding whether we will develop lung cancer. The most important
thing anyone can do to cut their risk from lung cancer is to give
up smoking, but for those people who are unable to quit, eating
lots of fresh fish could be a useful way to moderate their risk.''
SOURCE:
British Journal of Cancer 2001;84.
Reference
Source 89
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