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SCMP Reporter

HONG KONG researchers are urging Chinese people to change their diet, claiming their favourite foods of pickles, preservatives and fatty meats are killing them.

  A survey by specialists Dr Linda Koo and Professor John Ho into the causes of lung cancer among Chinese people - the biggest sufferers of the killer disease - found it was the food they ate rather than smoking or passive smoking that was the main cause.

  The doctors, who spent 14 years working on the project, now say more vitamin C in the typical Chinese diet will have a dramatic effect in reducing cases of lung disease.

  The survey was based on probes into lung cancer among women. But very early on, the doctors were able to dispel the theory that passive smoking caused lung cancer because nearly a quarter of the women they tested were from households where no one smoked. It was then they began the hunt for other causes.

  Out of 200 cancer patients interviewed in Hong Kong between 1981 and 1983, nearly 140 of the cases were not attributable to smoking, according to Dr Koo of the Hong Kong Anti-Cancer Society.

  ''Lung cancer takes decades to appear, so it was essential we looked into the life history of these women.

  ''Each patient was interviewed for two hours and as passive smoking was a hot subject of the early 1980s we looked into that.''   Several years and 50,000 pages of analysis later, they found no link between passive smoking and the victims.

  ''Some of the patients were under 40 and had never smoked in their lives so we had to look for something that the majority had in common; and we found it to be their diets,'' Dr Koo said.

  ''We found this to be the main factor in causing lung cancer for non-smokers. In years gone by the Chinese used to consume what they grew. Meat was too expensive so they relied on a staple diet of rice, vegetables and fruit.

  ''But things are changing. These people are now coming to the cities and eating large amounts of animal protein because there is not a massive price difference between meat and vegetables.''   Coupled with victims getting younger, lung cancer cases have tripled since the '60s - in 1993 nearly 3,000 Hong Kong people died from the disease.

  Dr Koo believes this could be attributed to a switch in Chinese diets in 1950.

  ''That year the major cause of child death was diarrhoea. The Chinese have always separated their foods into hot and cold categories, the latter consisting of vegetables and fruit. But because they believed cold foods caused the outbreak, they decided vitamin C was bad for them. We are now seeing the effects.''   Research has also linked the Hong Kong findings with other Chinese communities across the world. In Hawaii, 87 per cent of the Chinese women who died from lung cancer had never smoked.

  ''It does not really matter where Chinese people end up living because their diet remains pretty much the same,'' said Dr Koo, who is also a lecturer in the Department of Community Medicine at the University of Hong Kong.

   She said the problem stemmed from N-nitroso, a compound found in pickled foods, preservatives and meat. While the compound is harmless on its own, when digested and mixed with gastric juices it transforms into harmful chemicals called nitrosamines. Vitamin C is the only thing that can neutralise the chemical and make it safe.

  ''We are the first people in the world to establish a link between diet and lung cancer and it has been acknowledged as a major breakthrough in cancer research,'' Dr Koo said.

  Dr Stephen Ng Kam-cheung, president of the Medical Diagnostic Centre in North Point, noted: ''There are a lot of hints into the relationship between nitrosamines and lung cancer. Food and even beer contain a lot of nitrosamines, so it is important to find out the link with other forms of cancer.''   Anti-smoking and tobacco control groups in Hong Kong were unavailable for comment.

  Meanwhile, a new procedure for treating cancer was unveiled in Hong Kong yesterday.

  Doctors Wilson Wong and Douglas Chinn, founders of the Cryosurgery Centre of Southern California Alhambra Hospital, introduced the procedure during the annual scientific meeting of the Hong Kong College of Radiologists.

  Cryosurgery treats liver and prostate cancer by freezing and destroying cancer cells. Small probes containing liquid nitrogen are placed against tumour tissue through small incisions in the liver or prostate gland. The nitrogen then freezes the cancer and kills it.

  Hong Kong has a high incidence of liver cancer, one of the most deadly of all malignancies. In 1990, the incidence per 100,000 people was 24.6.

  Dr Wong said a screening programme was needed for people who were most at risk. ''We need the earliest prognosis to save lives.''   Once a screening programme has been established, the next step would be to establish a cryosurgery centre in Hong Kong, he said.



Chinese diet key to lung cancer