Cholesterol, Coronary Disease, and Cancer

Excerpt

In their important controlled trial that examined the use of a high polyunsaturated fat diet for the prevention of atherosclerotic complications in Los Angeles veterans, Dayton and co-workers¹ reported a successful reduction in serum cholesterol levels and in fatal atherosclerotic complications. However, because of a compensatory increase in fatal cancers in the treatment group, there was no significant difference in overall mortality between the control and treatment groups. This finding was somewhat discouraging to those who hoped for a dietary solution to the atherosclerosis problem. However, it was pointed out that these men were old (average age, 67 years), and the competing mortality from cancer might be expected to compensate for the diminished atherosclerotic mortality. However, later, more careful review of the deaths showed a greater occurrence of both respiratory and gastrointestinal malignant neoplasms in the treatment group as opposed to that in the controls.²

In a recent