I just picked this up from D'Adamo's web site.  It's interesting
that only the Italian studies fail to find the correlation
between red meat and colon cancer found other studies.  I wonder
if anyone has considered whether there is something unusual about
the red meat that Italians eat, either its source or the way it
is handled.

My mother, incidentally, was diagnosed with colon cancer about a
year ago and had a colostomy soon after, so heritable
susceptability is a concern to me.

Todd Moody
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Cipriani F, Geddes M

Unita Operativa di Epidemiologia, Centro per lo Studio e la
Prevenzione Oncologica, Firenze.

     We reviewed the main results of colon cancer (CC)
     epidemiologic studies, according to data published in the
     1973-1994 period, with a particular mention to dietary
     factors and to differences with Italian findings. Meat
     (mostly, red meat), animal fats and high energy intake not
     counterbalanced by sufficient physical activity seem to be
     the most consistent risk factors for CC.  On the contrary,
     the vegetarian based diet seems to reduce the risk of CC.
     Although interestingly, the relevance to CC of other
     life-style and diet-related factors (alcohol intake, smoking
     habits, processing and cooking methods, occupation, drugs,
     personal medical and reproductive history) must be better
     defined and requests further investigations. More recently,
     genetic studies are clarifying the hereditary risk of CC.
     Several colon carcinogenesis hypotheses have been proposed,
     but general agreement on the most reliable is still lacking.
     Authors argue that in the next future, new acquirements
     could emerge from metabolic polymorphism studies, possibly
     reconciling the biological significance of individual
     susceptibility and environmental factors to CC incidence.

Todd Moody
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