Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 1, 1993                   TAG: 9312010026
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

FATTY DIET MAY CAUSE LUNG CANCER NEW STUDY ATTACKS BURGERS, CHEESE

A National Cancer Institute study of nonsmoking women in Missouri found that those who eat diets with 15 percent or more saturated fat are about six times more likely to develop lung cancer than those whose meals have 10 percent or less of the fat.

"We found that, as you increase the amount of saturated fat, you increase the amount of lung cancer," Michael C.R. Alavanja, an institute researcher, said Tuesday.

A report on the study is to be published Friday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Earlier studies have linked high-fat diets with cancers of the colon, prostate and breast. High-fat diets also are thought to increase the risk of heart disease.

Alavanja said his research compared the diets of 429 nonsmoking women who had lung cancer with the diets of 1,021 nonsmoking women who did not have lung cancer. The women all lived in Missouri, were of about the same age and represented "a typical American female population."

"The leading contributors of dietary saturated fat were hamburgers, cheeseburgers and meat loaf . . . followed by weekly consumption of cheeses and cheese spreads, hot dogs, ice cream and sausages," the study said.

Alavanja said that these foods appear to create a lung cancer risk when they represent 15 percent or more of the calories in the diet.

He said there appeared to be a small protective effect from eating beans and peas.