Sugar intake from sugar-sweetened beverage among cancer and non-cancer individuals: the NHANES study

It has been estimated that there are approximately 14.5 million cancer survivors in the United States (1). Although 5-year survival rates for early stage colorectal, breast, and prostate cancer currently exceed 90% and are increasing, cancer survivors are still at greater risk for second malignancies and co-morbid conditions such as other chronic diseases (2,3). Growing scientific evidence shows that health-related risk behaviors including tobacco use, alcohol use, physical activity, healthy dietary patterns, and weight control may impact health among cancer survivors (2-7). Sugar intake or sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption has been demonstrated to have a positive association with obesity, diabetes, and cardio-metabolic diseases, as well as some cancers (6,7). Therefore, SSB consumption among cancer survivors will be an important issue as survival rates increase due to improvements in treatment and health care. Thus, it is of particular interest to examine SSB consumption behaviors among cancer survivors