NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Seven years ago, alarms were sounded that
acrylamide, a compound found in foods heated at high temperatures, could cause
cancer. However, studies have not uncovered links to colon cancer or breast
cancer, and now comes word from a Swedish study indicating that long-term intake
of acrylamide does not raise the risk of endometrial cancer.
Data from animal studies have supported a cancer-causing effect for acrylamide,
according to the report in the International Journal of Cancer. Indeed, in 2005
the World Health Organization called for lower levels of acrylamide in food.
On the other hand, population-based evidence has largely refuted a significant
cancer risk with acrylamide intake, Dr. Susanna C. Larson, from the Karolinska
Institute, Stockholm, and colleagues note.
An exception is a Dutch study, reported two years ago, in which acrylamide
intake was tied to ovarian and endometrial cancer in postmenopausal women who
had never smoked.
To
look into this, Larson's group analyzed data from 61,000 women in the Swedish
Mammography Cohort. The women completed food questionnaires when they were
enrolled in 1987-1990 and then again in 1997.
During an average follow-up period of 17 years, 687 women developed endometrial
cancer. Contrary top the Dutch report, the Swedish researchers found no evidence
that acrylamide intake influenced the risk of the malignancy, whether women
smoked or not.
"The inconsistent findings from our study and the Netherlands cohort may be due
to different ranges of (acrylamide) exposure," the authors speculate. The
average lowest level of intake was higher in the present cohort, while the
average highest level was slightly higher in the Dutch study, they point out.
Alternatively, it is possible that the association seen in the earlier study was
simply a chance finding, Larson and her colleagues add.
SOURCE: International Journal of Cancer, March 1, 2009.
