Meat cooked at high temperatures may increase bladder cancer risk

COOKING meat at high temperatures, or until it is well done, could increase the risk of bladder cancer, experts said yesterday.

The warning to barbecue-lovers adds weight to other research which has suggested charred meat may cause other cancers, including pancreatic cancer.

In the latest study, scientists found that people who eat meat regularly, especially meat that is well done or cooked at high temperatures, may have a higher chance of developing bladder cancer.

Those with certain genetic traits also appear to be more at risk, according to the 12-year study of 884 people with bladder cancer and 878 without. Over time experts have shown that cooking meats at high temperatures creates chemicals not present in uncooked meats. These heterocyclic amines (HCAs) are carcinogenic and are formed from the cooking of meats such as beef, pork and chicken.

HCAs develop when amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) and creatine (a chemical found in muscles) react at high cooking temperatures.

According to the National Cancer Institute in the US, experts have identified 17 different HCAs that “may pose human cancer risk”.

The latest study was led by Jie Lin, an assistant professor at the University of Texas, and was presented at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting in Washington DC.

The National Cancer Institute’s food frequency questionnaire was used to assess dietary intake of different meats.

The results were split into four groups, from the lowest to the highest meat intake.

Compared with those in the lowest group of red meat intake, people were 4% more likely to develop bladder cancer if they were in the third group up and 58% more likely if they were in the second highest group of red meat intake. Those people in the top group — people who consumed the most red meat — were 48% more likely to suffer bladder cancer than those with the lowest intake.

“Higher intakes of beef steaks, pork chops and bacon were each associated with increased bladder cancer risk in a dose-response pattern,” researchers said.

People who ate a lot of fried chicken and fried fish were at “significantly increased risk”. Red meats that were either medium or well done were linked with a 46% and 94% increased risk of cancer, respectively, compared with those that were cooked only long enough to still be rare.

When 177 people with bladder cancer and 306 without the cancer were analysed experts found those with the highest estimated intake of three specific HCAs were more than two-and-a-half times as likely to develop cancer as those with low HCA intake.