Meat and colo-rectal cancer

In early epidemiological studies of diet and cancer the stress was on the s earch for causal factors. Population (ecological) studies tended to show a strong correlation between meat intake, particularly red meat, and the risk of cole-rectal cancer. They also tended to show meat to be strongly invers ely correlated with cancers of the stomach and oesophagus and liver. Early case-control studies tended to support the postulated role for red meat in cole-rectal carcinogenesis, although more recent case-control studies, part icularly those from Europe, have tended to show no relationship. The cohort studies in general failed to detect any relationship between meat intake a nd cole-rectal cancer risk. The available evidence points to the intake of protective factors such as vegetables and whole-grain cereals being the mai n determinants of cole-rectal cancer risk, with meat intake only coincident ally related.