Daniel DeNoon, "Big Veggie Eaters Had Half the Risk of Pancreatic
Cancer", Web MD, September 16, 2005,
Link: http://my.webmd.com/content/Article/112/110274.htm

You really, really don't want to get pancreatic cancer. If you eat lots
of vegetables, you may not have to.

Pancreatic cancer is rare. That's a good thing. However, within five
years of diagnosis, more than 96% of patients die.

An expected 32,000 people will get pancreatic cancer this year. Here's
how to avoid being one of them: Eat vegetables -- a lot of vegetables,
says Elizabeth A. Holly, PhD, professor of epidemiology and
biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco.

Holly researched more than 2,200 San Francisco Bay residents, including
532 pancreatic cancer patients. Those who ate six or more servings of
vegetables every day got pancreatic cancer half as often as those who
ate less than three servings a day.

Fruits helped, too, but not as much as veggies. Eating five or more
pieces of fruit every day -- especially citrus like oranges -- cut the
risk of pancreatic cancer by 28%.

"Simple life choices ... may be one of the most practical ways to
reduce the incidence of this dreadful disease," Holly says in a news
release.

Not All Veggies Equal

Some vegetables seemed more protective than others. Compared with those
who ate the least:

* Those who ate the most onions and garlic cut their pancreatic cancer
risk by 54%.
* Those who ate the most beans cut their pancreatic cancer risk by 49%.
* Those who ate the most carrots cut their pancreatic cancer risk by
44%.
* Those who ate the most yellow vegetables cut their pancreatic cancer
risk by 41%.
* Those who ate the most dark, leafy vegetables cut their pancreatic
cancer risk by 37%.

Despite these specific findings, Holly warns that eating lots of one
vegetable likely means a person eats lots of others. So it's more
likely that simply eating lots of vegetables is better than eating lots
of just one kind.

The findings appear in the September issue of Cancer Epidemiology
Biomarkers & Prevention.