COLON CANCER AND DIETARY-FAT, PHOSPHORUS, AND CALCIUM IN HAWAIIAN-JAPANESE MEN

In a prospective cohort study, 8006 men of Japanese ancestry were examined from 1965 to 1968. A 24-h dietary recall questionnaire was administered to each subject as part of the baseline clinical examination. Dietary data were analyzed for intake of calcium, phosphorus, and total fat in 99 colon cancer cases and in 378 controls chosen from the cancer-free men. This was a nested case-control study design with 14-17 yr of prospective followup for colon cancer incidence. We found no significant association between dietary calcium intake and colon cancer risk. This held true whether phosphorus intake was low (< 1032 mg/day) or high (.gtoreq. 1032 mg/day), and whether total fat intake was low (< 61 g/day) or high (.gtoreq. g/day). Adjusted-odds ratios were 0.7-1.4 across eight subgroups of low and high intakes of the three nutrients studied. These data do not support a recent hypothesis that calcium intake might be negatively associated with colon cancer risk, depending on the level of fat and phosphorus intake.