Red Meat Raises Pancreatic Cancer Risk, Says Science

Yum, cancer (Limonada).

Why must science ruin everything? Just as we are getting used to the idea that red wine is not actually going to keep us young and healthy forever, a report shows up suggesting that "processed meat consumption is positively associated with pancreatic cancer risk." Sigh.

The study heralding this disheartening (for carnivores) news is actually a meta-analysis in the British Journal of Cancer which looked at 11 other studies of 6,643 pancreatic cancer cases. From those researchers were able to ascertain that there was a 29 percent increase in pancreatic cancer risk for men who eat a quarter pound of red meat a day (they found no similar increase in chances in women at that rate, but suggest "this may be because men in the study tended to eat more red meat than women.") Further, your chances go up if you eat even less than that. A mere tenth of a pound of processed meat a day will apparently increase your chances of the cancer by 19 percent.

This latest study adds to the research into pancreatic cancer, one of the deadlier cancers out there (it is hard to detect until it is too late and kills 95 percent of its victims within five years of diagnosis). Of course if you really want to avoid getting pancreatic cancer your best bets are to not be related to someone who had it and to not smoke but that's neither here nor there. Worry warts? Sounds like skipping that morning bacon doughnut now and then wouldn't hurt.

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By Garth Johnston in Food on January 13, 2012 10:23 AM

Comments [rss]

sk83r

Life is the process of dieing.

PicoPhreako69

Life Causes Death.
And yeah, I'm with the first post - more mmmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMEAT, please.

CMYKevin

The commenters are focusing on the wrong part of the article. The main issue here is that Science speaks!

S M

This is alarmist reporting. The study says eating Processed meat is harmful, not Red meat as the headline states. The main culprit is/are the nitrates used in processed meat, especially bacon.

Politburo

This is an alarmist comment. The study says nothing of the sort.

First, it's a meta-study and looked only at correlations, not causes.

The study did find increased relative risk with increased red meat and increased processed meat. Note that processed meat was not clearly defined, and also note that it was not mere consumption that was analyzed, but consumption above average levels.

And with respect to processed meat the study states that smoking also plays a role and more study is needed in that area (they didn't have enough data to do it themselves).

Rocknrope

I was confused by this as well - are they referring to processed meat like hot dogs, or red meat like steak. The study link refers to both, not just processed meat.

sairobi

I cannot haz cheezburger?

Politburo

Inaccurate headline, as correlation does not imply causation.

And it was not that the associated risk was increased for "men who eat a quarter pound of red meat per day". It was 120g (~0.25lb) increase over the median/average consumption.