000415 Charbroiled Meat Linked to Breast Cancer Risk

San Francisco - Barbecue season is near, but you might think twice about firing up the grill after the release of new studies that say eating flame- broiled steak may raise the risk of developing breast cancer.

“We found no association with total meat consumption or red meat consumption, but we found a twofold risk of breast cancer in women who consumed the most-well-done meat compared with those who ate less-cooked meat,” Dr. Rashmi Sinha, a researcher with the Iowa Women's Health Study, told reporters at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research on Monday.

Cooking meat at high temperatures, by frying, broiling and barbecuing, produces heterocyclic amines, a product of the reaction between creatine, a chemical in muscles, with amino acids, a core component of protein, as well as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, the compounds found on charred food, both of which have been proved to promote cancer in animals.

The longer the meat is cooked and the higher the temperature, the more of these compounds, which scientists say are also likely to be carcinogens for humans, are produced.

The Iowa Women's study estimated the amount of three types of heterocyclic amines in diets based on answers to questions about the amount of meat consumed, how the meat was cooked and how well it was cooked. Only PhIP, the principle heterocyclic tied to breast cancer in animals, showed a correlation to breast cancer risk in the study population.

“We don't understand breast cancer very well at all. This research may give us a hint of how dietary patterns are involved,” said Dr. John Potter, head of the cancer prevention research program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle.

Although the findings are preliminary, Sinha suggested that people may want to reduce the amount of PhIP in their meat by cooking it at lower temperatures through stewing, braising or baking, cooking it with liquid, or precooking it in the oven or a microwave before putting it on the grill.

In a separate study, researchers at Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore found that women with the highest levels of a certain kind of enzyme associated with activating heterocyclic amines were most susceptible to breast cancer.

“We found that women who ate flame-broiled meat more than twice a month had an increased risk of developing breast cancer,” said Dr. Kala Visvanathan, a research fellow at Johns Hopkins.

“This suggests that it is not just exposure to risk factors but a combination of genetic profiles and exposure that dictates cancer risk,” the researcher added.

A team of German researchers found that PhIP was attracted to estrogen receptors but concluded that it did not interact with the female sex hormone. They did find, however, that PhIP caused several kinds of DNA damage: mutations, strand breaks and cell transformations.

“PhIP damages DNA in the cell like other carcinogenic compounds,” said Dr. Wolfgang Pfau, of the Fraunhofer Society's Institute of Toxicology and Environmental Medicine in Hamburg, Germany. He suggested that the PhIP might bind to estrogen receptors and act as a carcinogen once those receptors reached the breast but said further studies needed to be carried out.

Cancer prevention centers recommended in 1997 that people limit red meat consumption to less than 3 ounces (80 grams) a day and stay away from burned or charred food, largely because of concerns about colorectal cancer.

Potter said on Monday: “People should restrict meat consumption to a modest amount and reduce charring. It may also be more useful to cut the fat off the meat rather than cook it off over a grill.”

The US studies on breast cancer risk appeared to contradict one carried out at the University of California Irvine College of Medicine and released last Tuesday.

Researchers reporting in the April issue of Carcinogenesis said women who ate well-done red meat such as pork or beef showed no increased risk of getting breast cancer.

RETURN TO HOME PAGE

E-mail: sflanagan@sprintmail.com