Meat Increases Pancreatic Cancer Risk

Swedish researchers have found that eating red meat significantly increases a man’s risk of pancreatic cancer, and eating processed meats increases both men’s and women’s risk of contracting pancreatic cancer – considered one of the deadliest cancers.

The research, from Sweden’s National Institute of Environmental Medicine in Stockholm, analyzed eleven clinical (human) studies that followed 6,643 pancreatic cancer patients. The study found that eating more red meat increased a man’s risk of pancreatic cancer by almost 30%, but not in women.

However, both men and women have an increased risk of pancreatic cancer – by almost 20% – from eating more processed meats.

The study was published in January’s British Journal of Cancer.

Pancreatic cancer has one of the worst survival rates of any other cancer. Pancreatic cancer survival rates are about 25% for one year, and 6% for five years. In the U.S. 38,000 people were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2011, and about 34,000 died of pancreatic cancer. It is the fourth highest cause of cancer deaths.

The study gauged red meat consumption by categorizing those who ate 120 grams more red meat a day for the red meat analysis, and those who ate 50 grams more processed meat for the processed meat analysis.

This is not the first study that has associated eating red meat and processed meats with cancer. Multiple studies have found that colorectal cancer, stomach cancer, liver cancer, throat cancer, lung cancer and other forms of cancer have also been associated with eating red and processed meats.

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REFERENCES:

Larsson SC, Wolk A. Red and processed meat consumption and risk of pancreatic cancer: meta-analysis of prospective studies. Br J Cancer. 2012 Jan 12.