The Continuous Update Project

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The Continuous Update Project: Overview


WCRF/AICR has been the global leader in elucidating the relationship between food, nutrition, physical activity and cancer. The first and second expert reports represent the most extensive analysis of the existing science on the subject to date. To keep the evidence current and updated into the future, WCRF/AICR is undertaking the Continuous Update project, in collaboration with Imperial College London (ICL).

The Continuous Update will provide the scientific community with a comprehensive and up to date depiction of scientific developments on the relationship between diet, physical activity, obesity and cancer. It will also provide an impartial analysis and interpretation of the data as a basis for reviewing and where necessary revising WCRF/AICR's cancer prevention recommendations based on the 2007 Expert Report.

In the same way that the Second Expert Report was informed by a process of systematic literature reviews (SLRs), the continuous update will systematically review all of the science as it is published. WCRF/AICR has convened a panel of experts (the Continuous Update Panel) consisting of leading scientists in the field of diet, physical activity, obesity and cancer who will consider the evidence produced by the systematic literature review and meta-analysis, and will consider the results and draw conclusions before making recommendations.

The ongoing systematic literature review will be conducted by a team of scientists at ICL in liaison with the SLR centres where possible.

Instead of periodically repeating the extensive task of conducting multiple systematic literature reviews that cover a long period of time, the continuous review process will be based on a live system of scientific data that is updated on an ongoing basis from which, at any point in time, the most current review and meta-analysis of scientific data can be performed.

WCRF/AICR will produce reports which will outline the scientific developments in the field of diet, physical activity, obesity and cancer. The reports will also include updates to the WCRF/AICR recommendations.

The updated recommendations will be used by the WCRF/AICR education and media relation departments to inform the general public both of the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and of the developments in science that underpin these recommendations.


The Continuous Update Panel

Members and observers:

Elisa Bandera, MD, PhD
The Cancer Institute of New Jersey
United States

David Forman, PhD
University of Leeds
United Kingdom

David Hunter,ScD
Harvard Unversity
Boston, United States

Alan Jackson, CBE,MD,FRCP,FRCPCH,FRCPath
University of Southampton
United Kingdom

John Milner, PhD
National Cancer Institute
Bethesda, MD United States

Hilary J. Powers, PhD, RNutr
University of Sheffield
United Kingdom

Elio Riboli, MD ScM, MPH (observer)
Imperial College
London, United Kingdom

Arthur Schatzkin, MD, DrPH
National Cancer Institute
Rockville, MD, United States

Ricardo Uauy, MD, PhD
Instituto de Nutricion y Technologia de los Alimentos
Santiago, Chile

Steven H. Zeisel, MD, PhD
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
NC, United States


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