BBC News
London, UK
20 October, 2006


People who eat a lot of bread are at greater risk of kidney cancer, Italian research has suggested.

The study of more than 2,300 people also claimed pasta and rice could moderately raise the risk, while vegetables and poultry reduced it.

Cancer Research UK said it was the first time such a claim had been made and warned people not to be alarmed.

A spokesman for the charity said smoking and being overweight were the only well-established avoidable causes.

More than 6,600 people are diagnosed with kidney cancer each year in the UK.

Lifestyle and diet

In the study, researchers from the Institute of Pharmacological Research in Milan, matched each of the 767 adults with kidney cancer with two control patients, who did not have the disease.

They then looked at their personal and family medical history, lifestyle and diet over the past two years.

The scientists were trying to discover which foods increased the risk of renal cell carcinoma.

The research, published in the International Journal of Cancer, found patients who ate more bread had a higher risk of kidney cancer.

It said there was a modest rise in the risk with pasta and rice, but a reduction among patients who ate more poultry, processed meat, and vegetables, whether raw or cooked.

Other products, including coffee, tea, eggs, red meat, fish, cheese, potatoes and fruit, appeared to have no bearing.

The report suggested the high glycaemic index of bread, pasta and rice could be a factor in raising the risk.

High GI foods raise blood sugar levels dramatically which is thought could feed the growth of tumours in some way.

But Ed Yong, of Cancer Research UK, said the study involved patients remembering what they had eaten over two years which could have led to inaccuracies.

"So, we will need more evidence from much larger studies before we can say if this link is real," he said.

"At the moment, the only well-established avoidable causes of kidney cancer are being overweight or obese, which accounts for one in four cases, and smoking, which accounts for one in five cases."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6067908.stm

Not surprised. In fact, I think eventually we'll be told wheat is pretty nasty stuff. Strangely I think this will come out of Italy, they're very progressive in their study of celiac disease.

Wow, wow, wow. Finally! Hopefully, researchers will now be able to get funding for more clinical studies.

Great one Demi!!

Now I've got another argument for people who say to me..."oh no...I can't give up my bread!"

Another chink in the low-fat armor.

Luvvvvvvvvvvvvit!

Italy? How surprising. I would have thought many centuries of pasta would have eliminated celiacs by now.

The few thousand years humans have been eating wheat isn't long enough to adapt. Actually, I wonder if it is an adaptation we'll ever make. Plenty of us don't get identified until adulthood, after our reproductive years. Although a lot of celiacs have more miscarriages and conception difficult, many actually start getting symptoms only after they've had children.

That which does not kill us, in this case, makes us weaker!

Ill bet if it was saturated fat they looked at fat would be the culprit once again

Bread and Pasta Increase Italian Kidney Cancer Risk

By Crystal Phend, Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
October 20, 2006

MILAN, Italy, Oct. 20 -- Two major players in the Italian kitchen -- bread and pasta -- may increase the risk of renal cell carcinoma, according to a large case-control study here.

Increased consumption of bread almost doubled the risk of kidney cancer while pasta and rice contributed a more modestly increased risk, albeit not significant, found Francesca Bravi, M.D., of the Institute of Pharmacological Research Mario Negri here, and colleagues.

More at ..
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Hematol...Cancers/tb/4335

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One thing to remember would be that any one person's risk of kidney cancer is fairly low. Thus twice the risk of fairly low is not much.

Pasta is an interesting one... Don't many nutritionists recommend this?

And is this white bread that this study looked at?

Anyone remember the Acrylamide study? It measured levels of Acrylamide in bread and baked potatoes, the only safe way to eat potatoes was to boil them.

Acrylamide is throught to be a carcinogen. If it was in water, they would not allow it to be purchased.

Maybe?

Beth

Yeah, but I think Acrylamide was exonerated a while back.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4350407.stm

The report also says pasta and rice raised the risk of cancer too.

I found this on Google news today:

Bread-Heavy Diet Linked to Kidney Cancer

21:46:52 EDT Oct 20, 2006

Canadian Press: KATHLEEN DOHENY /HEALTHDAY REPORTER

FRIDAY, Oct. 20 (HealthDay News) - A diet high in bread may boost the risk of kidney cancer, according to an Italian study that compared the food intake of kidney cancer patients and those without the disease.

Researchers say those consuming the highest amounts of bread doubled the risk for kidney malignancy, compared to those eating the smallest amounts.

But one expert urged caution in interpreting the study results.

"These findings need to be replicated and found consistent before any recommendation can be made," Marji McCullough, a registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the American Cancer Society, said in a prepared statement.

The study's lead author, Francesca Bravi, a researcher at the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan, agreed. "Further studies are needed to confirm the link between bread and renal cell (kidney) carcinoma," she said.

Her team published the findings in the Oct. 20 online edition of the International Journal of Cancer.

In the study, Bravi's team compared 767 men and women, aged 24 to 79, with kidney cancer to 1,534 men and women in the same age range who did not have the disease.

They asked about diet, lifestyle, personal and family medical history and obtained the participants' height and weight so they could compute their body-mass index (BMI). The participants also answered questions on average weekly intakes of 78 food items over the past two years.

Those who ate the highest amounts of bread - 28 portions a week - had nearly two times the risk of kidney cancer as those who ate the lowest number of portions per week, 9, she found. A "portion" was defined as 50 grams or 1.7 ounces, the equivalent of a slice or a slice and a half of bread.

A modest but not statistically significant increased risk was found for the highest intakes of pasta and rice. Those with the highest intakes of milk and yogurt had a 1.3 times greater risk for kidney cancer, she found. But high intakes of poultry, processed meet and vegetables decreased the risk.

Bravi speculated that the elevation in risk linked to high bread, pasta and rice consumption could be due to the blood-sugar raising effects of these foods. Eating large quantities of those foods, she said, may affect the process of getting cancer by influencing the level of substances called insulin-like growth factors, which have been implicated in cancer.

Even though more study is needed, Bravi said, "Our study suggests that a diet poor in refined cereals and rich in vegetables may have a favorable role on the risk of renal cell carcinoma."

She doesn't think the findings would apply to the U.S. diet. "The U.S. diet is richer in proteins and poorer in cereals," she said.

McCullough took issue with the study.

"This study has several limitations that could bias its findings," she said. Among them: the fact that patients were asked to remember their diet going back two years. People with kidney cancer may remember what they ate differently than those without the disease, she said.

And while Bravi attributed the link of high bread intake and cancer with the bread's blood sugar-raising effect, other foods they asked about - potatoes and dessert for instance - are also known to raise blood sugar levels. But those foods didn't boost the risk of cancer, McCullough pointed out.

McCullough said that the findings about bread and pasta "need to be replicated and found consistent before any recommendation can be made."

She noted that the amount of bread consumed by the highest 20 percent in Bravi's study isn't excessive. It was also mainly bread made with refined flour, not whole grain.

Possibly, McCullough said, it wasn't the bread consumption, per se, that raised the risk of cancer, but something related to it, such as eating a lot of butter with the bread.

Right now, the best way to reduce kidney cancer risk, McCullough said, is to focus on the known risk factors, such as obesity and smoking, and correct those. "We know that avoiding tobacco and maintaining an ideal body weight are two ways individuals can modify their risk of developing kidney and many other cancers," she said.

About 39,000 people in the United States will learn they have kidney cancer this year, according to the American Cancer Society, and about 12,840 people will die from it.