Rada-Fernandez de Jauregui D, et al. - Whether dietary patterns of red meat, poultry, fish and vegetarian diet differentially influence the incidence of cancers of colon and rectum in the UKWCS, was investigated using a 217-item food frequency questionnaire and Cox proportional hazards regression. A follow-up for a mean of 17.2 years was carried out. Four common dietary patterns were defined based on a hierarchy of consumption of red meat, poultry and fish for each cohort participant. A protective association of red meat free diets specifically on distal colon cancer was shown.