Cancer risk and consumption of animal products
Research excerpts
“... vegans tend to have (...) decreased risk for certain prominent ‘Western’ cancers (...) vegan diets may be especially protective in regard to cancers linked to insulin resistance – namely, breast and colon cancer – as well as prostate cancer ...”
Source: McCarty 1999
“... after adjustment for age, sex, and smoking (...) the incidence of all cancers combined was lower among vegetarians than among meat eaters ...”
Source: Key et al. 2009
“... vegetarians had approximately half the risk of developing colon cancer. Also, vegetarians had 23% risk reduction for cancer of the gastrointestinal tract. Vegetarians experienced a 35% risk reduction for prostate cancer compared to non-vegetarians. Similarly, vegetarians tended to have lower risk for cancer of the respiratory tract and overall-cancer. (...) Vegetarians experienced a 48% risk reduction in mortality from breast cancer ...”
Source: Le et al. 2014
“This comprehensive meta-analysis reports a significant protective effect of a vegetarian diet versus the incidence and/or mortality from ischemic heart disease (-25%) and incidence from total cancer (-8%). Vegan diet conferred a significant reduced risk (-15%) of incidence from total cancer.”
Source: Dinu et al. 2017
“A dramatic increase in estrogen-dependent malignant diseases, such as ovarian, corpus uteri, breast, testicular and prostate cancers has been recognized. (...) Among various food items, cow’s milk and cheese had the highest correlation with incidence and mortality rate of these cancers.”
Source: Maruyama et al. 2010
“... we found a positive association between milk consumption and prostate cancer.”
Source: Qin et al. 2004
“Cows' milk stimulated the growth of LNCaP prostate cancer cells in each of 14 separate experiments, producing an average increase in growth rate of over 30%. In contrast, almond milk suppressed the growth of these cells by over 30%.”
Source: Tate et al. 2011
“... approximately 35% (range 10%–70%) of cancer can be attributed to diet, similar in magnitude to the contribution of smoking to cancer (30%, range 25%–40%) (...) Meat consumption in relation to cancer risk has been reported in over a hundred epidemiological studies from many countries with diverse diets.”
Source: Genkinger et al. 2007
“Uptake of dairy products (...) is suggested to represent one of the main risk factors for the development of breast cancer.”
Source: zur Hausen et al. 2015
“The collected data from other researchers and our own data are indicating that the presence of steroid hormones in dairy products could be counted as an important risk factor for various cancers in humans.”
Source: Malekinejad et al. 2015
“Daily milk consumption in adolescence (...) was associated with a 3.2-fold risk of advanced prostate cancer ...”
Source: Torfadottir et al. 2011
“Our data indicate that high intakes of lactose and dairy products, particularly milk, are associated with an increased risk of serous ovarian cancer (...) Women who consumed ≥ 4 servings of total dairy products [per day] had a risk of serous ovarian cancer (...) twice that of women who consumed <2 servings [per day].”
Source: Larsson et al. 2004
“Red meat and processed meat intake is associated with a risk of colorectal cancer, a major cause of death in affluent countries. Epidemiological and experimental evidence supports the hypothesis that heme iron present in meat promotes colorectal cancer.”
Source: Bastide et al. 2011
“... research links the consumption of meat, especially red and processed meats, to increased risk of several types of cancer. Vegetarian and vegan diets increase beneficial plant foods and plant constituents, eliminate the intake of red and processed meat, and aid in achieving and maintaining a healthy weight.”
Source: Lanou et al. 2011
“The intake of a Western diet with a high amount of red meat is associated with a high risk for colon cancer. We hypothesize that heme, the iron carrier of red meat, is involved in diet-induced colonic epithelial damage ...”
Source: Sesink et al. 1999
“High intake of red and processed meat is associated with significant increased risk of colorectal, colon and rectal cancers. The overall evidence of prospective studies supports limiting red and processed meat consumption as one of the dietary recommendations for the prevention of colorectal cancer.”
Source: Chan et al. 2011
“Low dietary intake of fruits and vegetables doubles the risk of most types of cancer as compared to high intake and also markedly increases the risk of heart disease and cataracts. Since only 9% of Americans eat the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables per day, the opportunity for improving health by improving diet is great.”
Source: Ames et al. 1993
“The incidence and mortality rates of testicular and prostatic cancers in 42 countries were correlated with the dietary practices in these countries (…) Among the food items we examined, cheese was most closely correlated with the incidence of testicular cancer at ages 20-39, followed by animal fats and milk.”
Source: Ganmaa et al. 2002
“The death rate of prostatic cancer increased 25-fold almost linearly after the war. The intake of milk, meat, and eggs increased 20-, 9-, and 7-fold, respectively, after the war. In connection with the development and growth of testicular and prostatic cancers in Japan, particular attention should be paid to milk, because the increase in its consumption in this country is a recent occurrence and because milk contains considerable amounts of estrogens plus saturated fats.”
Source: Ganmaa et al. 2003
“Serum from [vegan] group patients inhibited [prostate cancer] cell growth by 70%, whereas serum from control group patients inhibited growth by only 9% (...) None of the [vegan] group patients but 6 control patients underwent conventional treatment due to [a progression of the disease]. (...) The growth of LNCaP prostate cancer cells (...) was inhibited almost 8 times more by serum from the [vegan group] than from the control group ...”
Source: Ornish et al. 2005