From these insights it is clear that there are many genetic predispositions that can interact with a Western dietary pattern in experimental models and in human populations to lead to common forms of cancer. The Western dietary pattern does not exist in isolation but is found nested within a sedentary lifestyle and an excess of dietary fats, starches, and refined carbohydrates often combined with excess use of tobacco and alcohol. In the past few decades, the ability to modify environmental factors through nutritional counseling and exercise instruction has been refined, but the ability to modify the behavior of populations through public health measures and dietary guidelines remains a major challenge.
Medical oncologists, nurses, and dietitians will have an increasing opportunity to enhance their care of patients with cancer and those at risk by using the principles and information in this text. Basic scientists moving from a focus on molecular biology, genetics, and metabolism will have an opportunity to integrate basic science with questions important in clinical medicine. In these ways, the field of nutritional oncology aims to modify the environmental factors influencing the genetic changes and their expression at every stage of carcinogenesis, from the initiation of the cancer cell to its metastatic spread to other areas of the body.
This text is divided into the following sections:
- First, the biology of nutrition and cancer including fundamentals of human nutrition, nutrigenomics and nutrigenetics, genetics and epigenetics, metabolic networks, and energy balance in cancer are described.
- Second, the evidence from the nutritional epidemiology of cancer is explored, including fruit and vegetable consumption, whole grains, obesity, tobaccorelated cancers, alcohol, and environmental toxins.
- Third, biological approaches to investigating cancer are described, including endocrine and paracrine factors, oxidants and antioxidants, thiols, tumor immunology, and animal models of cancer.
- Fourth, gene–nutrient interaction in cancer is explored, including an overview of the challenges facing the field, methodological issues in dietary assessment, and the evidence for specific cancers, including prostate cancer, breast cancer, skin cancer, colon cancer, gastric cancer, pancreatic cancer, bladder cancer, leukemia, and lymphoma.
- Fifth, bioactive food components are examined in detail, including dietary supplements, fiber and carbohydrates, dietary lipids, calcium and vitamin D, soy isoflavones, selenium, glucosinolates, green tea, garlic, berries, and isoprenoids.
- The sixth section deals with the nutritional assessment and support of the patient with cancer, including cancer anorexia and cachexia, weight management of the breast cancer survivor, nutritional support of the adult patient with cancer, endocrine effects of cancer and ectopic hormone syndromes, counseling the cancer survivor, and nutritional support in quality of life. Finally, the seventh section tackles the problem of implementing nutrition in guidelines and clinical practice, including an analysis of modern statistical methods, evidence-based practice management in prevention and treatment, dietary guidelines in cancer prevention, dietary interventions for cancer prevention, and the future of nutritional oncology with a detailed analysis of the prospects for personalized medicine based on gene–nutrient interaction.
Book Details
- Hardcover: 848 pages
- Publisher: Academic Press; 2 edition
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0120883937
- ISBN-13: 978-0120883936
- Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.8 x 1.7 inches