Dietary Lipids and Colon Carcinogenesis: Pre-clinical Models to Population-Based Intervention, from the Past, Present and to the Future

Dear Colleagues,

Dietary lipids play a vital role in human health. During the past two decades the field of dietary lipids has undergone significant development, with emerging new roles for dietary lipids in human physiology. Colon carcinogenesis is a multistep process exhibiting cellular and molecular complexity, involving various cell types and inputs from other organ systems. Dietary lipids are implicated in colon carcinogenesis in primary and secondary prevention, as well as in cancer therapy. Epidemiological studies, as well as studies in preclinical models in the 1980s and 1990s have supported the conjecture that the quality and quantity of dietary lipids affect colon carcinogenesis and may have a role in cancer prevention. Human intervention trials have not always been convincing. The pre-clinical models provide mechanistic insight into health research. The usefulness of pre-clinical models in addressing the role of dietary lipids in cancer prevention needs a critical evaluation. The dogma that specific types of lipids such as fish oil, containing n-3 long-chain fatty acids, or olive oil, a rich source of oleic acid, are preventive continues to prevail. Most importantly, in view of the fact that a Western diet has been implicated in increasing the colon cancer risk in developing countries, recent research articles on the importance of animal sources of fat in colon cancer are non-existent. It is time to revisit the link between dietary lipids and colon carcinogenesis, with respect to cancer prevention. The advances in our knowledge about the biology of carcinogenesis and the physiological role of dietary lipids warrants a concerted effort to 1) critically evaluate the current information, 2) identify the existing knowledge gap and 3) highlight the future perspectives in the field of dietary lipids and colon carcinogenesis. Food industries have introduced a variety of new sources of lipids containing a variety of fatty acids. 

Prof. Dr. Ranjana Bird
Guest Editor

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• dietary lipids
• colon carcinogenesis
• nutrition
• fatty acids
• cancer prevention