The Role of Diet and Nutrition in Cancer Epidemiology: Recent Advancements and Future Direction

Cancer is the second leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide prompting the urgent need to develop more preventative measures for cancer. Although previous studies have identified many risk factors of cancers, some of them cannot be recommended on a population level to prevent these cancers. Globally, in 2017, dietary factors were estimated to be responsible for 913 thousand cancer deaths and 20 million cancer disability adjusted life years. Diet and nutrition rank high among the most important determinants of cancer risk and the importance of addressing this in cancer prevention has been widely recognized. Depending on nutritional parameters, about 10-15% of all cancers are considered preventable by dietary modifications. Furthermore, although the evidence is scarce and still in the early stage, a healthy diet is suggested to improve survival among patients with established cancers. However, as dietary factors are generally correlated, interact with each other, and are inversely correlated with harmful dietary factors, the impact of individual dietary factors might be overestimated and diet-cancer relations cannot be accurately estimated. Other factors, including dietary patterns and dietary supplements, may also play an important role in cancer epidemiology.

The overarching goal of this proposed Research Topic is to understand the recent advances in the research of diet and nutrition, and cancer etiology and prognosis as well as future direction of cancer epidemiology research. This Research Topic will cover topics including dietary assessment methods, individual nutrition assessment, dietary pattern analysis, and development of novel biomarkers. These topics will help clarify and enhance the role of diet and nutrition in cancer epidemiology. Particular interest is in studies that focus on the role of diet and nutrition on cancer etiology and prognosis through well-designed cohort study or randomized controlled trial.

Specifically, we welcome the submissions of Systematic Reviews, Meta-analyses, and Original Research articles focusing on, but not limited to, the following terms:
1. Individual dietary food items (e.g. whole grains, non-starchy vegetables and fruit, dairy products, processed food, etc.) and cancer risk and prognosis;
2. Individual nutrients (e.g. vitamins, fatty acids, beta-carotene, etc.) and cancer risk and prognosis;
3. Individual dietary supplements and cancer risk and prognosis;
4. Dietary patterns/scores/quality/habit and cancer risk and prognosis;
5. Diet-related biomarkers (blood, urinary, faeces, or tumor tissues) and cancer risk and prognosis;
6. Diet-gene/nutrient-gene interactions and cancer risk and prognosis.
Studies related to natural compounds are not in scope of this Research Topic.

Please Note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics, computational analysis, or predictions of public databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) will not be accepted in any of the sections of Frontiers in Oncology.