Red meat consumption linked to colon cancer mortality rates

A recent study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology has revealed strong links between regular consumption of red meat and risk of death from colon cancer. Marjorie McCullough and a team at the American Cancer Society conducted the study using data from a previous study on 184,000 Americans who didn’t have cancer between 1992 and 1993, and who were had been questioned about what they ate. The researchers sifted the data down and looked at 2,315 men and women who were diagnosed with colon or rectal cancer between the start of the study and 30 June, 2009. Of these men and women, 966 died between the start of the study and 31 December, 2010. No link was found between how much red or processed meat a person ate after their diagnosis and their risk of death, but the amount of meat a person ate before their diagnosis was linked with their risk of dying during the study. About 43 per cent of the people who ate about 10 servings of meat per week, and 37 per cent of the people who ate about two servings of meat per week, died during the follow up period. Dr Jeffrey Meyerhardt, a gastrointestinal oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston (who has written an editorial to accompany the new study) said: “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.” The US National Institutes of Health estimates that approximately 143,000 Americans will be diagnosed with colon and rectal cancers in 2013, and about 51,000 people will die from these. The study comes on the back of a number of recent studies concluding how a diet rich in fruit and vegetables and low in red and processed meats can support general health and wellbeing.