Diet and lifestyle habits in early-onset colorectal cancer. a pilot case-control study.

Background: Early-onset Colorectal Cancer (eoCRC), defined as a CRC in patients younger than 50 years old, shows an increasing incidence worldwide in the latest years. The role of exogenous factors associated with CRC has been largely overlooked in eoCRC. Here, we conducted a case-control study to evaluate the diet and the lifestyle habits in an Italian population of patients with eoCRC, compared to age-matched healthy controls (HCs). Methods: We enrolled 118 subjects (47 cases, 71 controls) in a third-level academic hospital. We analyzed epidemiological features (age, sex, BMI), lifestyle behaviors (smoking habits, physical activity, type of diet, use of dietary supplements), and eating habits (semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire) in eoCRCs and HCs, covering the previous 5 years. Results: In our cohort, positive family history of CRC was significantly associated with the development of eoCRC (p=0.004). Fresh meat (p=0.003), processed meat (p
Source: Digestive Diseases - Category: Gastroenterology Source Type: research