A Nutritional Approach to the Prevention of Cancer: from Assessment to Personalized Intervention

Abstract

Among lifestyle factors, nutrition is one of the most important determinants of health, and represents a pivotal element of cancer risk. Nonetheless, epidemiological evidences of the relationship between several cancers and specific foods and nutrients is still inadequate, and solid conclusions are missing. Several epidemiological studies related increased consumption of high fat diet and the risk to develop different types of cancer. Indeed, caloric restriction without malnutrition is associated to cancer prevention, due to the reduction in the activity of pro-aging pathways, of inflammation in precancerous cells, and to the increase of the apoptosis of damaged cells. Food may be also the primary route of exposure to contaminants from multiple chemical classes such as metals, persistent organic pollutants, and pesticides. Exposure-disease associations and the interplay with genetic susceptibility requires further fundamental knowledge and studies on genetic variation, environment, lifestyle, and chronic disease, that are pivotal to provide insights into disease etiology at the population level, in order to eliminate and reduce associated health risks, that contributing to improve health outcomes for the population. A primary nutritional approach for Active and Healthy Ageing (AHA) has been developed by the Nutrition group of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on AHA that could prove effective also to sustainable cancer prevention strategies. A comprehensive approach to adequate nutrition is very important to public health, in order to identify and implement the best possible and fair strategies. The working group on lifestyles of the Italian Ministry of Health has been working in this direction. The group used a consensus methodology to collect and integrate the available evidences from the literature and from the Italian experiences at the regional level, to provide a framework aimed at raising the interest of other experts and relevant stakeholders to outline and scale-up joint strategies for a primary nutritional approach to cancer prevention.