Cooking methods and risk of breast cancer

Introduction and Aim: Breast cancer is the most common malignancies inwomen, which its overall prevalence is one of four women. There is‘‘probable’’ evidence of increased risk of colon, rectal and breast cancers withhigh intake of red meat. Although ecological studies have suggested a positivecorrelation between intake of meat and dietary fat and the risk of breast cancer,some epidemiologic studies revealed an increased risk with high intake of redmeat, cooking time and temperature. Thus this article tries to survey someevidences about relation between breast cancer and cooking methods.Methods and Materials: This review compromised on published articles since2000, in PubMed and GoogleScholar according to key words.Results: Heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs) some of components that formed in high temperature and long timecooking especially grilling or barbecuing meats. Most important HCAs areinclude: 2- amino-1-methyl-6-phenyl-imidazo [4,5-b]pyridine (PhIP) and 2-amino-3,8-dimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline (MeIQx) and the common PAHsincludes: benzo[a]pyrene. These compounds have been identified as breastcarcinogens. Several case-control studies showed that existence of PAHs andPhIP in grilled red meat are risk factors for breast cancer and its developmentbecause their consumption may be related with DNA damage, mutation in Haras,p53 and DNA repair enzymes genes contributing to breast carcinogenesis.Another population-based case-control study revealed that food‘s close contactto heating source and barbecuing increase the risk. Also the exposure to highlevels of PAHs in early life may increase the risk of postmenopausal breastcancer.Conclusion: Based on several epidemiologic studies, cooking method is one ofthe most important processes that can increase the carcinogen agents in food.Thus safe food preparing methods should be though in mass medias as part ofcancer control program.

کلیدواژه ها:

cooking method ، meat ، breast cancer