Meat consumption and cancer risk: A multisite case-control study in Uruguay

There is strong evidence that meat intake increases the risk of colorectal cancer. However, for other cancer sites there is currently less convincing evidence. To further explore the association between meat intake and cancer risk we conducted a case-control study of 26 cancer sites in Uruguay between 1988 and 2000, including 6892 cancer cases and 1832 hospital controls. Unconditional logistic regression was used to estimate multivariate adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals of various cancers for intake of total meat, red meat, beef, lamb and processed meat. There was a statistically significant increase in the odds of cancers of the mouth and pharynx (OR=1.63), esophagus (OR=3.30), larynx (OR=1.85), stomach (OR=4.02), colorectum (OR=1.78), lung (OR=1.59), sarcomas (OR=2.27), prostate (OR=1.58), bladder (OR=1.68), kidney (OR=1.96), nervous system (OR=3.12), thyroid (OR=2.38) and of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (OR=1.79), myeloma (OR=3.28) and all cancer sites combined (OR=1.61) with high intake of total meat and similar findings were found with red meat, beef and lamb. Intake of processed meat was associated with increased odds of cancers of the pharynx (OR=1.90), esophagus (OR=1.51), larynx (OR=2.03), stomach (OR=4.39), colorectum (OR=1.76), breast (OR=1.23), non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (OR=2.01), leukemia (OR=2.11) and with all cancer sites combined (OR=1.32). Our results confirm earlier findings of increased risk of gastrointestinal cancers with higher meat intake and suggest that meat consumption increases the risk of multiple other cancer sites.