Eating Pan-Fried Red Meat Ups Prostate Cancer Risk

A study of nearly 2,000 men has revealed that regularly eating red meat that has been cooked at a high temperature may significantly increase the risk of developing prostate cancer. Mariana Stern, associate professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, and colleagues asked participants to complete a comprehensive questionnaire concerning the amount of meat they ate and how it was cooked.  More than 1,000 of the men included in the study had already been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. Results showed that men who ate more than 2.5 servings of red meat cooked at high temperatures were 40% more likely to have advanced prostate cancer, and that men who ate more than 1.5 servings of pan-fried red meat each week increased their risk of advanced prostate cancer by 30%. Pan-frying was consistently linked to an increased risk of prostate cancer, regardless of meat type. This finding corroborates with previous research by the same author, which found that cooking fish at high temperatures, particularly pan-frying, increased prostate cancer risk. The researchers are uncertain as to why cooking meat at high temperatures raises prostate cancer risk, however they suspect that it is due to the formation of DNA-damaging carcinogens called heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that are formed during the cooking process. The researchers concluded: "Our results support a role for carcinogens that accumulate in meats cooked at high temperatures as potential prostate cancer risk factors."