EPIC - the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer
Transcript
EPIC Volunteer 1: I’m taking part in EPIC because when I heard about, it seemed to be a good thing to do. Anything that can help, find causes for cancer and how we can reduce it from happening, seems a good idea.
EPIC Volunteer 2: I’m taking part in EPIC for two reasons. The first one is for my self, with the various tests, they could find something that is wrong with me and hopefully put it right before it gets out of hand. Second reason is they could find a link that with lifestyle and things like that, which would help stop cancer or stop it starting which would be fantastic.
Voiceover: According to experts, over half of all cancers can be prevented by changes to lifestyle. In particular about a quarter of all cancer cases are caused by an unhealthy diet.
So what aspects of our diet are responsible? This is exactly what the EPIC study is hoping to find out. EPIC is the largest study of diet and health ever undertaken. Over half a million volunteers from 10 European countries are taking part. The aim is to investigate the complex links between what we eat and our health. Volunteers are being followed throughout their lives. Its hopes that the results from the study will eventually lead into health policies and interventions to help improve the health of our society.
Cancer Research UK is providing core funding for the two participating UK centres, one of which is in Norwich. In 1993, 30,000 healthy volunteers were recruited through 35 GP practices, all within a 30 mile radius of Norwich. The participants were given a base line health check and then a second health check, around six years later. Now they are being contacting for a third health check.
EPIC is a long term study, although this means that volunteers a committed to taking part for many years, they are only called upon once in a while.
EPIC Volunteer 1: Taking part in EPIC trial involves coming along to a health check from time to time, occasionally filling in a health questionnaire and sometimes filling in a food diary but it’s not a weekly thing, this could be several years apart.
Voiceover: During the comprehensive health check, volunteers are weighed and measured. This includes height, waist, chest and body fat measurements. Readings for low capacity and blood pressure are also taken and volunteers give a blood sample. A typical health check takes about two and half hours and the data are carefully recorded. Every so often, volunteers are also asked to fill in a food diary for seven days.
EPIC Volunteer 1: Filling in the diet diary for one week, you need to make a record of the meals you’ve eaten, the size of the portions you’ve eaten and perhaps how the foods been prepared, especially if you’re doing it in the home.
Voiceover: The food diaries provide a crucial snapshot of what a volunteer normally eats. They are extremely important in helping to find out which aspects of our diet effect our cancer risk. Scientist will study virtually everything in our diets including fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, fibre and fat.
Shabina Hayat, Research Coordinator, EPIC Norfolk: There’s a whole range of different types of diets that we see in the diaries. There are diaries where you won’t find a single piece of fruit or vegetable in the whole seven days and then you have people who have fish and chips four or five times a week.
Voiceover: Data from the health check, health questionnaire and food diaries are then compiled and processed by computer. There is a huge amount of data to analyse. Preliminary results from EPIC have shown links between an increased risk of bowel cancer and a diet high in red and processed meat and low in fibre. So how do the volunteers feel about taking part?
Nichola Dalzell, Local Coordinator EPIC Norfolk: People are very positive about the aim of the trial. They see that they are actually getting something out of it as well. We’ve had comments on feedback forms such as it’s a good MOT. They’re guaranteed a good health check, which they wouldn’t ordinarily get and a lot of these people are actually coming back to us now at third health check, telling us that they’ve had diseases picked up along the way, through EPIC that ordinarily they wouldn’t have had detected.
Voiceover: EPIC is unique because it’s forward looking. It follows volunteers who are healthy, at the time of recruitment, over many years. Many other studies have asked patients who have already have cancer to recall their lifestyles before their diagnosis and this is a much less accurate approach. And because it’s a long term study, it requires dedicated volunteers.
EPIC Volunteer 2: EPIC is a very long study but you can’t get results out of a short study. It has to be long, in my view… I’m not scientific but it doesn’t hurt me, it doesn’t cost me anything, it doesn’t take up much time and everybody can give up a few minutes or a few hours every now and again. You can always fit it into your life.
Voiceover: Over the next decade the study should give us a greater insight into the links between diet and cancer risk and provide us with clear messages about healthy eating. The study will also look at the effects of other lifestyle factors including; body weight, physical activity, alcohol, hormones and infections and it will determine how our genes interact with these factors to affect our cancer risk.
EPIC Volunteer 1: I think it’s definitely worth while taking part in these types of studies. Anything that can help find out ways of reducing the risk of getting cancer must be good in long term for everybody.
