Grants are large grants that support several projects and investigators, sharing a common theme.
The proposed research builds on another ongoing activity of the epidemiologists at the Cancer Research Center. This is a large multiethnic cohort study of Diet and Cancer, which was begun by some of the epidemiology faculty in 1993 with the collaboration of colleagues at the University of Southern California. More than 215,000 men and women in Hawaii and California provided baseline information on their diets, physical activity, medical and reproductive histories, as well as sociodemographic variables. The participants are being followed prospectively for cancer incidence, as well as incidence and mortality from other causes, in order to identify risk factors for these diseases. For example, the role of dietary fat components in influencing the development of prostate cancer, the role of folate in the risk of colorectal cancer, and the role of legumes, including soy products, in possibly reducing the risk of breast and prostate cancers will be studied.