Meat-eating habits linked to cancer mortality
People who report eating the most red and processed meat before being diagnosed with colon cancer are more likely to die during the next eight years, a new study has found.
Dr Marjorie McCullough, the study’s lead author from the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, the United States, said: “It’s another important reason to follow the guidelines to limit the intake of red and processed meat.”
While the new study cannot prove eating red or processed meat, such as beef, hot dogs and sausages, causes colon cancer deaths, previous studies have found that eating such meat is tied to an increased risk of developing the cancer.
There is less evidence, however, on how people’s diets after colon cancer diagnoses affect their chances of survival.
For the new study, researchers used data from a different study on 184,000 Americans who did not have cancer between 1992 and 1993, and who were periodically asked about what they ate.
After excluding people who had multiple types of cancer, unverified diagnoses and missing information, among other things, the researchers had data on 2,315 men and women who were diagnosed with colon or rectal cancer between the start of the study and June 30, 2009.
Overall, 966 of them died between the start of the study and Dec 31, 2010.
The researchers found no link between how much red or processed meat a person ate after his diagnosis and his risk of death, but the amount of meat a person ate before his diagnosis was tied with his risk of dying during the study.
About 43 per cent of the 580 people who ate about 10 servings of red or processed meat per week at the start of the study died during the follow-up period. That compared with about 37per cent of the 576 people who ate about two servings per week.
The researchers also found that people who consistently ate more red or processed meat before and after their colon cancer diagnoses were more likely to die from that cancer during the study, compared with those who ate the least before and after their diagnoses.
Dr Jeffrey Meyerhardt, who wrote an editorial accompanying the new study in the Journal Of Clinical Oncology, said it is possible the link between red and processed meat and colon cancer comes from cancer-causing compounds found in cooked meat and preservatives.
“The primary message is a confirmation that increased intake of red or processed meat can have detrimental effects on the development of colon cancer, the type of cancer and other health effects of patients in the long term,” DrMeyerhardt, a gastrointestinal oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, said.
Dr McCullough said about three or four servings of red or processed meat per week is a good target. “We’re not saying people need to be vegetarians. It’s really just limiting intake and making it more the exception than the rule,” she said.
Source: Reuters
