Does a Red Meat Diet Increase the Risk of Pancreatic Cancer?
Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of death among people who die of cancer, and because it is usually not diagnosed until the tumors have begun to spread elsewhere in the body, survival rates are especially low. That’s why people who have known risk factors for pancreatic cancer (a parent, grandparent, or sibling who had the disease, work in the petrochemical industry, work with solvents, smoking) may benefit from dietary changes that lower the risk of the disease. Or at least lower the risk of the disease on a population-wide level. Red meat has long been suspect as a source of pancreatic cancer risk. Physicians at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston interviewed 626 people who had pancreatic cancer and 530 healthy controlled and learned that people who develop this condition tend to eat more: • Bacon, • Grilled chicken, • Fried chicken, and • Well-done pork, but increased risk was not associated with: • Hamburger (with one exception, listed below) or • Steak. People wh
