Printen
Bewerkte vleesproducten verhogen de kans op kanker
aanmerkelijk.*
Mensen die veel hot dogs, worsten en andere bewerkte
vleesproducten consumeren hebben 67% meer kans op het krijgen van kanker aan de
pancreas dan zij die weinig van deze producten eten.
Dit blijkt uit een grote studie van 7 jaar onder bijna
200.000 Amerikanen. Het lijkt niet dat het vet en cholesterol gehalte de orzaak
zijn doch de bereiding waarbij de chemische processen die gebruikt worden
kankerverwekkende stoffen doen ontstaan. (waarschijnlijk bijv. nitraten en
nitrieten)
People who eat a lot of hot
dogs, sausages and other processed meats greatly increase their risk of
developing pancreatic cancer, according to a large study in Hawaii and
California.
The study of nearly 200,000
people in the two states found that those who eat the largest amounts of
processed meats have a 67 percent higher risk for pancreatic cancer than
participants eating the lowest amount of that food.
"That is considerably
high for dietary impact, and it's consistent," said Ute Nothlings, Cancer
Research Center of Hawaii post-doctoral research fellow and lead investigator
for the Multiethnic Cohort Study, in a telephone interview from Los Angeles. She
reported the results yesterday at the 96th Annual Meeting of the American
Association for Cancer Research in Los Angeles.
Diets heavy in pork and red
meat are not much healthier than processed meat, according to the findings. They
increased the risk of pancreatic cancer by about 50 percent, compared with
participants who ate less meat.
The American Meat Institute
disputed the findings. "The larger body of evidence has shown that
processed meats are a healthy part of a balanced diet," the trade group
said in news release.
Nothlings said the multiethnic
study showed that poultry, fish, dairy products and eggs appear safe. They
showed no association with risks for cancer of the pancreas.
Cancer Research Center of
Hawaii and University of Southern California researchers examined the links
between diet and pancreatic cancer among 190,545 men and women of
African-American, Japanese-American, Caucasian, Latino and native Hawaiian
origin in Hawaii and Los Angeles.
The base-line investigation
was from 1993 to 1996, and participants were followed for seven years, Nothlings
said. In that time there were 482 cases of pancreatic cancer.
She said the findings suggest
meat preparation methods might be responsible for the association with
pancreatic cancer, rather than fat or cholesterol content. Chemical reactions
that occur from preparing processed meat can cause carcinogens, she said.
An analysis of fat and
saturated fat consumption in the study showed a significant increase in risk for
fats from meat, but not from dairy products, Nothlings said. This indicates fat
and saturated fat are not likely to be connected with pancreatic cancer, but
that is a subject for further analysis, she said.
Nothlings said the study is
the largest of its kind to demonstrate a link between high, long-term
consumption of processed meats and pancreatic cancer.
The Hawaii-Los Angeles study
was large enough to obtain "statistically significant risk estimates that
support this hypothesis," she said.
Meat consumption has been
associated with pancreatic cancer in previous case-control studies, but results
were inconsistent and data from prospective studies was lacking, she said.
The Multiethnic Cohort Study
researchers adjusted their findings for age, smoking, history of diabetes,
family history of pancreatic cancer and ethnicity.
Nothlings said the study has
not changed her eating habits. "I favor poultry," she said.
"Before I did the study, I also favored poultry."
Her advisor and senior author
of the study is Dr. Laurence Kolonel, Etiology Program director and professor at
the Cancer Research Center.
(Mei 2005)