New Study Says Processed Meats Linked with Bladder Cancer

Consumption of processed meat and some of the added components can be connected to an elevated danger for bladder cancer, suggests a new study. Dr Amanda Cross, who led the study, said that not enough data was available to draw conclusive findings, and called for further studies.

Cross and his team of researchers have connected red meat cold cuts to a 29 percent higher risk of getting bladder cancer. The nitrates added to red meats to preserve and change the color displayed “a positive nonlinear association for red meat cold cuts” and bladder cancer, the researchers noted. Salts like sodium nitrite and nitrate in these foods can react with stomach acid to form cancerous products during digestion.

Data was analyzed from approximately 300,000 men and women, aged 50 to 71, from eight states who participated in a large prospective study on diet and health. At the depart of the research in 1995/96, the participants supplied information about their lifestyle and dietary habits. During eight years of follow-up, 854 participants were diagnosed with bladder cancer.

Eating processed meat itself was not related to an increased risk of bladder cancer, Cross reported.