The role of nutritional factors in cellular protection against DNA damage, altered gene expression and malignant transformation

In recent years data from epidemiological studies and laboratory experiments have revealed numerous links between diet and cancer. The complex role of nutritional factors in modifying cancer incidence may be attributed in part to dietary agents acting as potentiators or promoters of cancer, serving as auxilliary agents to other environmental factors; as causes of cancer, or as cancer preventive agents. Studies can be carried on in vitro, in cell culture systems, where malignant transformation serves as an end point. These systems afford the opportunity to study the direct effect of nutrition in oncogenesis and the role of dietary factors in modulating the frequency and course of neoplastic development in its various stages. 20 refs., 1 fig., 3 tabs