2024-03-19 21:00:00
colon cancer
The scientific reason why you should ‘not eat meat’ to prevent colon cancer
Reporter Choi Ji-woo
Entered 2024/03/20 06:00
The biological mechanism by which frequent consumption of red meat and processed meat increases the risk of developing colon cancer has been revealed./Photo = Getty Image Bank
The biological mechanism by which frequent consumption of red meat and processed meat increases the risk of developing colon cancer has been revealed.
A research team at the University of Southern California’s Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center analyzed 29,842 colon cancer patients and 39,635 healthy controls. The research team collected data on participants’ intake of red and processed meat. The research team compiled data from 27 studies and created a standard measure for consumption of red meat (beef, pork, lamb) and processed meat (bacon, sausage, hot dogs). The daily intake for each category was calculated and participants were classified into four groups considering body mass index.
As a result of the analysis, people who consumed a lot of red meat or processed meat had a higher risk of developing colon cancer than people who did not consume much red meat. People who consumed the highest amount of red meat had a 30% higher risk of developing colon cancer than those who consumed the least amount of red meat. In the case of processed meat, the risk was 40% greater.
The research team collected data on more than 7 million genetic mutations based on the participants’ DNA samples. We then analyzed gene-environment interactions for the association between red and processed meat intake and cancer risk. The research team identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on chromosomes. SNPs help predict sensitivity to environmental factors and risk of developing diseases.
The analysis showed that HAS2 and SMAD7 gene mutations determined the risk of developing cancer depending on the level of red or processed meat consumption. People with the HAS2 gene mutation who consumed a lot of red or processed meat had a 38% higher risk of developing colon cancer. SMAD7 regulates hepcidin, a protein involved in iron metabolism. If hepcidin is not well regulated, it can cause iron overload inside cells. Red meat and processed meat contain large amounts of heme iron, which is why SMAD7 mutations increase the risk of cancer by changing the way the body processes iron. People with SAMD7 mutations had an 18% higher risk of developing colon cancer than those without the SAMD7 mutation.
In the future, the research team plans to analyze the causal relationship of these genetic mutations through follow-up research.
Meanwhile, the results of this study were recently published in ‘Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers&Prevention’.
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