Category Archives: Research

Carbs and Pancreatic Cancer: Why “Null Findings” Matter

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Say you’re a researcher. You’ve spent months collecting and analyzing data, crunching numbers and composing tables, but it’s all been for naught. That hypothesis you set out to test (say, that a link exists between a specific food and a known indicator of cancer risk) didn’t pan out. In your investigation at least, you found no such link.

You have achieved what in scientific circles is called a “null finding.” And, in a very real sense, that’s not nothing.

Null findings don’t make headlines, and often don’t even get published. (The tendency of journal editors to publish results that seem “new” over those that find no association — or that simply accord with previously published results — is a source of publication bias, which over time can distort the general scientific opinion on a given subject.)

But there is an important difference between a null finding capable of closing the book on a given question — that says, essentially “There’s no there there, move along.” — and a null finding that says simply “We need more and better data before we can make a judgment.”

On those rare occasions when the media do pick up on a null finding, there is a tendency to mistake one kind for another. Let’s take a look at a recent null finding and see what it really has to say. Continue reading →


New Healthy Living Guidelines for Survivors: An Expert’s Take

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For years, AICR has written about the growing body of evidence showing that the same lifestyle choices found to reduce the risk of developing cancer – a healthy diet, a healthy weight and physical activity –can also help survivors live longer and healthier. Research is still growing but last week, the evidence became even clearer when the American Cancer Society released new guidelines for survivors.

The ACS guidelines advise survivors to exercise, eat healthy, and maintain a healthy weight. The expert panelists who evaluated the evidence concluded that following these recommendations can lower the risk of the cancer recurring and improve the chances of disease-free survival.

The updated guidelines for survivors were published last week in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. You can read the complete guidelines here.

We asked Elisa Bandera, MD, PhD, one of the expert panelists, to help explain the recommendations. Bandera, a nutritional epidemiologist at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, is also a member of the expert panel on AICR’s Continuous Update Project

Q: Can you give a sense of how much research there is on diet, weight, and exercise related to survivorship, and how recent it is?
A: Surprisingly, not much research has been done in this area, compared to the literature on nutrition and physical activity and cancer risk. Currently, most of the evidence comes from studies on breast cancer.  However, this is an area that is growing exponentially and several ongoing studies are going to be producing more results in the near future.

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AICR Welcomes New “Cancer Prevention Facts and Figures” Report

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Last week the American Cancer Society (ACS) released their annual update of US cancer statistics specifically related to cancer prevention. That report, Cancer Prevention & Early Detection Facts & Figures, turns raw data from cancer registries and other sources into easy-to-understand statistics on cancer incidence and cancer mortality on a year-by-year basis.

This year, the report’s take-home message is the pressing need for collaboration among government, private corporations, non-profit organizations, health care providers and other groups in efforts to prevent cancer.  We at AICR welcome this call, which echoes the conclusions of our policy report. And we are pleased to see ACS citing the AICR/WCRF Expert Report so prominently, in the section titled “Overweight and Obesity, Physical Activity and Nutrition”:

Obesity, physical inactivity, and poor nutrition are major risk factors for cancer, second only to tobacco use. One-third of the more than 500,000 cancer deaths in the US this year can be attributed to diet and physical inactivity habits, including overweight and obesity, while another one-third are caused by use of tobacco products.

Although genetic inheritance plays a role in the risk of some individuals developing cancer, non-inherited factors have a larger impact on cancer risk for the population as a whole. Avoiding the use of tobacco products and exposure to secondhand smoke, maintaining a healthy weight, staying physically active throughout life, and consuming a healthy diet can substantially reduce a person’s lifetime risk of developing or dying from cancer.

In an environment when the public is bombarded with health messages from every quarter — including those hawking products — any instance when different health experts speak in a single clear voice is noteworthy.  We at AICR welcome the new ACS report, because it helps make clear that when it comes to preventing cancer, there is already a consistent, evidence-based message that should rise above the noise:

Eat smart. Move more. Weigh less. And, of course, don’t smoke.