Association of diet and other factors with adenomatous polyps of the large bowel: a prospective autopsy study.

The risk of developing adenomatous polyps of the large bowel was studied in 163 Hawaii Japanese autopsy subjects. They constitute a subset of 8006 men originally examined from 1965 to 1968 and of those who died from 1969 to 1984. Adenomas were found in 79 autopsied subjects but not in the remaining 84 subjects. The study looked at a number of dietary, physical, laboratory, and social variables in relation to the risk of adenomatous polyps. No significant differences were observed between subjects with and without adenomas in intake of dietary fat, proteins, or carbohydrates and in body mass index, level of physical activity, serum cholesterol, or cigarette smoking history. The only significant association was the increase in the mean number of polyps (1.04, 0.87, 1.61, and 2.34) with increasing levels of alcohol intake but the trend was not monotonic. The accrual of more subjects into the study is needed to investigate this association more thoroughly.