“Pink October” is officially launched in the country, to raise awareness about breast cancer. The Burgundy Cancer Institute is organizing a conference on October 14 to talk about the links between nutrition and cancer. We are this Monday with Nicolas Lescut, oncologist from Dijon.
Is food itself a source of cancer or is it just one aggravating factor among others?
It’s a bit of both. Cancer is a multifactorial disease. You have determinants which can be individual, genetic. You have determinants which can be environmental, so for that, you can have an individual action, in particular vis-à-vis UV rays for example. There are also general policies that are carried out for the prevention vis-à-vis the factors within the work. And then you have determinants which are behavioral. Tobacco is the best known of them. But there is also nutrition which has an important part. It is estimated that nearly a third of cancers could be avoided if we had prevention that was nutritionally effective.
What would this type of prevention be? Is it in the way of eating, in the quantities, certain foods to avoid?
It’s a bit of all that at the same time. The first point, the one that we remember and that comes out the most from the studies, is really alcohol, for which you have to have a moderate consumption. There is also physical activity which shows an indisputable benefit. And then the food. That’s why we on prevention, we insist both on the repeated nature of the thing, but for a message not only to be heard, but to be listened to, it must be explained . We can tell people to “eat five fresh fruits and vegetables a day”, they will hear it, but to put it into practice, we have to explain to them that we have studies that have shown that, for example, if we ever supplement vitamins effectively individuals, there is a decrease of nearly 30% in the risk of cancer. What is surprising is in men and not in women. Simply because women eat better and supplementation doesn’t have the same impact.
Food is a bit sensitive at the moment with inflation. Do you think this will have a concrete impact on the number of cancer cases in the years to come?
I think there is an awareness at the national level. In recent years, we have realized the importance of what we can put on our plate. With this type of event, like the one we are going to organise, we will also try to give practical advice to people on how to eat better, but staying within limited budgets, favoring short supply chains and then having fun by same time.
Is there a difference between the number of cancers among the population. Do, for example, the poorest people, who can hardly have access to foods that are perhaps of better quality, have more cancers?
Yes, it is demonstrated. But what is difficult is that there are a lot of biases. Once again, we are on something multifactorial and it is also, in general, the populations which are a little more exposed to tobacco consumption, sometimes also to alcohol consumption, which sometimes have a little less activity physical. So it’s true that it’s difficult to separate things out precisely, but we do think that there may be a link.