AACR: Fruit, Vegetable, Whole Grain Intake Up in Young Patients With Lung Cancer

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By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, Senior Medical Editor, B. Pharm. Last updated on April 21, 2026.

via HealthDay

TUESDAY, April 21, 2026 -- Young patients with lung cancer have significantly higher fruit, vegetable, and whole grain consumption than the U.S. reference, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, held from April 17 to 22 in San Diego.

Sarah Gorbatov, from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and colleagues examined whether mutation-specific environmental exposure patterns contribute to lung cancer risk in young patients in the Epidemiology of Young Lung Cancer observational case study. The patients were classified according to mutations into distinct biological pathway groupings. The final analysis cohort included 187 patients aged 40 years or younger at diagnosis (78.1 percent female).

The researchers observed a difference in tobacco patterns from expected associations. Patients with mutations in the EGFR pathway (EGFR + ERBB2) showed unexpected tobacco exposure (32.9 percent), despite this pathway typically being associated with never smokers, while never-smoking patterns in patients with Fusion Positive mutations (ALK+ROS1+RET+NTRK) were as expected (79.3 percent). Across all pathway groups, oral contraceptive use was consistently elevated (75 to 100 percent). Compared with the U.S. reference of 57, EGFR pathway and Fusion Positive patients had higher Healthy Eating Index-2020 scores (64.94 ± 10.65 and 65.26 ± 9.89, respectively). These patients had significantly higher consumption of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, which may have been pesticide-prone.

"These counterintuitive findings raise important questions about an unknown environmental risk factor for lung cancer related to otherwise beneficial food that needs to be addressed," lead author Jorge Nieva, M.D., also from the Keck School of Medicine, said in a statement.

One author disclosed ties to AstraZeneca and Genentech.

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Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

Source: HealthDay

Posted : 2026-04-22 02:09

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