Overcooked Red Meat ‘Doubles Prostate Cancer Risk’

By Sharon Green | November 24, 2011 2:07 PM GMT

Men who have an appetite for well-done steaks may be significantly increasing their chances of developing prostate cancer, health experts warn.

A recent study at the University of California analysed the eating habits of 1,000 men, of whom 470 had been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. The participants were asked about their consumption of red meat, along with how often they grilled and barbecued it.

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Study: Those who ate well-done or chargrilled steaks and burgers had twice the odds of
aggressive prostate cancer than those who never ate meat or ate it cooked rare or medium.

Results showed that those who regularly ate well- or very-well-done steaks, burgers, liver and processed meats had twice the odds of developing aggressive prostate cancer than those who never ate meat or ate it cooked rare or medium.

Scientists believe that charred meat cooked at high temperatures produces a reaction that forms two chemicals - heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and polycycic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) - that encourage prostate cells to develop much quicker than normal. In animal studies, these chemicals have been shown to cause numerous types of cancer, including prostate cancer.

"Higher intake of any ground beef or processed meats were positively associated with aggressive prostate cancer, with ground beef showing the strongest association," said Dr John White from the study.

This association primarily reflected intake of grilled or barbecued meat, with more well-done meat conferring a higher risk of aggressive prostate cancer. In contrast, consumption of rare to medium cooked ground beef was not associated with aggressive prostate cancer. Higher intake of well-done grilled or barbecued red meat could increase the risk of aggressive prostate cancer."

Further analysis pointed to overcooking at high temperatures as being at the root of the problem, linking the increase in risk of prostate cancer to the method of cooking.

However, a British Nutrition Foundation study claimed that the majority of adults ate "healthy amounts" of red meat and there was an "inconclusive" link to cancer.

Earlier this year, scientific advisers from the Department of Health said that red and processed meat "probably" increases the odds of developing bowel cancer.

They recommended eating no more than 70g per day. Over one week, this amounts to a total of three sausages, one small steak, one quarter-pounder and three slices of lamb.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among British men, with more than 37,000 men in the UK diagnosed with the condition every year.

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Underweight People at Higher Post-Surgery Risk

CHICAGO (Reuters) - People who are underweight have a 40 percent higher risk of dying in the first month after surgery than patients who are overweight, according to new research released on Monday ...

By Julie Steenhuysen | November 22, 2011 2:41 PM GMT

The findings suggest that body mass index, or BMI, may be useful in predicting which patients are at the greatest risk while recovering from surgery, U.S. researchers reported in the Archives of Surgery.

Prior studies looking at the role of BMI in surgery have been mixed, said George Stukenborg of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, who worked on the study.

"Patients with low BMI are at higher risk of death 30 days after surgery," Stukenborg said in a telephone interview.

The researchers used data on nearly 190,000 patients who underwent a variety of surgeries at 183 hospitals between 2005 and 2006.

BMI is calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by height in meters squared. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people with a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 are normal weight, those with a BMI of 25 to 29.9 are overweight, and those with a BMI of 30 and above are obese.

To look for a link between body weight and the risk of death, they classified patients into five groups or quintiles: people with a BMI of less than 23.1; people with a BMI of 23.1 to less than 26.3; people with a BMI of 26.3 to less than 29.7; people with a BMI of 29.7 to less than 35.3; and people with a BMI of 35.3 or higher.

Overall, 2,245 or 1.7 percent of people in the study died within 30 days of surgery.

"We found patients in the lowest quintile had a 40 percent higher odds of death compared to the mid-range," said Stukenborg, referring to people in the overweight category with BMIs of 26.3 to 29.7.

Even when the researchers adjusted for type of surgery and other risk factors, those with a low BMI still had a greater risk of dying in the first month after surgery compared with plumper surgery patients.

Stukenborg said it is not clear why. The study did not track recent weight loss, so it could be that people who weighed less were sicker to begin with.

"That is a possibility," he said.

Either way, Stukenborg said doctors should consider BMI when they plan surgeries for their patients.

Being overweight or obese carries many other risk, raising chances of heart disease, diabetes, some cancers, arthritis and other conditions. Obesity-related diseases account for nearly 10 percent of medical spending in the United States or an estimated $147 billion a year.

(Editing by Vicki Allen)


http://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/254061/20111122/underweight-people-higher-post-surgery-risk.htm

Should You Skip Alcohol If Mom Had Breast Cancer?

By Frederik Joelving | November 14, 2011 4:45 PM GMT


NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A team of U.S. scientists believe they have found a piece of advice that breast cancer -stricken mothers can give their daughters to help them stave off the disease: stay clear of alcohol.

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Reuters/Victor Fraile
A waiter serves a glass of red wine at a tasting in Hong Kong in May 2008.

The team found that among teen girls with breast cancer in the family, those who had a drink a day on average were more than twice as likely as nondrinkers to develop benign breast disease.

That's not really a disease, but a catch-all for lumpy breast tissue that isn't dangerous in itself. A few of those lumps may turn into cancer down the road, though, so the new study uses them as a stand-in for breast cancer risk.

To researcher Catherine Berkey, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, that means adolescent girls and young women from breast cancer-stricken families "should be aware that drinking alcohol may increase their own risk for (benign breast disease) and for breast cancer later on."


But an independent expert said the advice to give up alcohol, while well-intentioned, is unlikely to make a significant dent in breast cancer risk.

"It is mostly an interesting observation, but it is going to have a very limited public health impact," said Dr. Steven Narod, who heads the Familial Breast Cancer Research Unit at Women's College Hospital Research Institute in Toronto.

Berkey and her colleagues, whose work is published in the journal Cancer, tracked nearly 7,000 girls from 1996, when they were between nine and 15 years old, until 2007.

Seventeen percent had either a mother, an aunt or a grandmother with breast cancer, and slightly more had a mother with benign breast disease.

Among the heaviest drinkers (at age 22, that amounted to about a drink a day) 3.1 percent had benign breast disease. For abstainers, the number was 1.3 percent, Berkey said.

Because the study is based on observations, and not a real experiment, there is no proof that alcohol caused the extra breast lumps, however. And most lumps never become cancer, Narod pointed out.

"I would be very, very reluctant to say that a 24-year-old woman with benign breast disease is at increased risk of breast cancer," he told Reuters Health.

"Even if it were true that family history and alcohol together increase the risk of benign breast disease, and benign breast disease increases the risk of breast cancer, I think the maximum number of breast cancers you could prevent would be much less than one percent," Narod added. "Is there any hope for this approach? No."

It's not the first time alcohol has been linked to breast cancer.

Earlier this month, for instance, a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) estimated that 2.8 percent of teetotalers would develop the disease over 10 years, compared to 3.5 percent of women who downed up to 13 drinks a week.

But since alcohol has also been tied to fewer heart attacks, it's difficult to know what to do with this information, said Narod, who wrote an editorial about the JAMA findings.

"It's not even clear that stopping drinking would prevent breast cancer," he told Reuters Health.

There are several risk factors for breast cancer, such as having the disease in the family, having dense breasts, being older or drinking alcohol.

"The fact that they are risk factors is a scientific truth," said Narod. "But it certainly does not lead to the conclusion that one can eliminate breast cancer by eliminating all risk factors." Often the risk factors are too rare to have a big impact, or their link to the disease is too weak, or they can't be changed.

"I think we should keep our eyes on the prize: finding the cause of breast cancer," said Narod.

SOURCE: bit.ly/h73jcS Cancer, online November 14, 2011.

http://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/249031/20111114/skip-alcohol-mom-breast-cancer.htm