A Case-Control Study of Relationships of Diet and Other Traits to Colorectal Cancer in American Blacks1

Ninety-nine black colorectal cancer patients and 280 matched controls from hospitals and multiphasic health checkup clinics were interviewed about past dietary habits and other traits. The colon cancer cases tended to report less frequent use of foods with at least 0.5% fiber content than did their controls. This relationship, though small, showed a consistent dose-response gradient, appeared in both case-hospital control and case-multiphasic health checkup control comparisons, and could not be accounted for by the effects of other variables. Colon and rectosigmoid junction cancer patients tended to have eaten foods with at least 5% saturated fat somewhat more often than controls. When consumption of these two groups of foods was considered in combination, significantly more colon cancer patients than controls reported a high saturated fat foods-low fibrous foods eating pattern, as opposed to a low saturated fat foods-high fibrous foods diet. Statistically significant excesses of the following traits were also reported by the colorectal cancer patients: prolonged cigar smoking in men, nulliparity in women, and history of colorectal polyps.