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Just Released.. A Study that links Colorectal Cancer with Red Meat Intake
A study published in the June 2021 issue of Cancer Discovery sheds new light on how eating red meat may promote the growth of colorectal cancers.
Several risk factors have been established for colorectal carcinoma (CRC), yet their direct mutagenic effects in patients’ tumors remain to be elucidated.
They leveraged whole-exome sequencing data from 900 CRC cases that had occurred in three US-wide prospective studies with extensive dietary and lifestyle information. They found an alkylating signature which was previously undescribed in CRC, This alkylating signature is associated with high intakes of processed and unprocessed red meat prior to diagnosis.
Notably, the researchers also found that of the 900 colorectal cancer patients included in their review, those whose tumors had the highest levels of alkylating damage were 47 percent more likely to die of colorectal cancer than those whose tumors had the lowest levels of alkylating damage.
“The accumulation of evidence is mounting,” Said lead author Marios Giannakis, MD, PhD, an oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. in an interview with Healio. “Individuals should consume a balanced diet, rich in fruits and vegetables, and avoid high intake of red meat.”
Colon cancer is the third-most common cancer in the United States, excluding skin cancers. Since the mid-1980s, as more people have been getting screened, the U.S. has seen a drop in the incidence of colon cancer overall. However, among adults under 50, the rate has been incrementally increasing since the mid-1990s.
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