April 17, 2026

expert reaction to unpublished conference abstract on consumption of whole fruits, vegetables and whole grains and incidence of lung cancer in non-smoking Americans under the age of 50

A conference abstract from the American Association for Cancer Research looks at fruit, vegetable and whole grain consumption and lung cancer incidence in non-smoking Americans. 

Dr Baptiste Leurent, Associate Professor in Medical Statistics, University College London (UCL), said:

“This is only a conference abstract, but the flaws of the study and its conclusions are quite striking.

“Essentially, it compares certain characteristics (such as the Healthy Eating Index) from 166 young patients with lung cancer to reference values from the general U.S. population. The study appears to suggest that this group has a higher HEI than the general population, but jumping to the conclusion that HEI could cause lung cancer is quite a stretch, let alone implicating pesticides.

“It is obvious that this sample is not comparable to an appropriate control group, which would have been similar individuals without lung cancer. For example, this is a younger and non‑smoking population, it could simply reflect the fact that younger people, or non‑smokers, tend to have healthier diets than the general population. To illustrate the point, the study’s headline could just as well have been that non‑smokers eat healthier diets than smoking Americans.

“Overall, this abstract provides little evidence of an association between diet and lung cancer, let alone any causal link, and offers no meaningful support for claims regarding pesticides.”

Prof Peter Shields, Emeritus Professor of Medical Oncology, Ohio State University, said:

“In abstract form, it is impossible to evaluate the quality of research, so I can only comment on the concepts. First, it is well known that leanness is a risk factor for lung cancer, opposite to most other cancers. The authors may not be seeing anything more than this.  More importantly, the grouping of those mutations together is arbitrary and unclear if they share the same carcinogenic pathways, versus those are the only ones we know how to treat. And, even more important, a role for pesticides is entirely speculative.

“This research should be considered exploratory, as it is in early stage, and is a small study. We have to be careful about studies providing results that were not hypothesized during study design.  It would likely be harmful for people to avoid fruits and vegetables because of concerns for lung cancer.  Smoking is by far the leading driver of lung cancer. Former smokers remain at risk for lung cancer. Patients with lung cancer who have never smoked is rising, but still rare, and the well-known benefits for eating fruits and vegetables (and other positive lifestyle factors) far outweigh any speculation of data interpretation from this study.”

Abstract from the AACR Annual meeting 2026. The session was titled ‘5039 / 12 – Dietary patterns in young lung cancer: mutation-specific environmental associations’ and was presented by Sarah D. Gorbatov. The abstract was embargoed until 20:00 UK time on the 17^th of April 2026

Declared interests

Dr Baptiste Leurent: “No conflict of interest.”

Prof Peter Shields: “None”