Chemical caused by cooking increases risk of cancer in women

A wide-ranging study has found for the first time that a common chemical caused by frying, roasting or grilling can increase the risk of cancer in women.

A study involving 120,000 people aged between 55 and 70, about 62,000 of whom were women, has established a direct link between consumption of the chemical acrylamide and the incidence of ovarian and womb cancer, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Monday.

The Dutch study found that women who absorbed more acrylamide were twice as likely to develop ovarian or womb cancer as those who ingested a smaller amount, the newspaper said.

The substance acrylamide which was thought to be a probable cause of the disease, is found in cooked foods such as bread, breakfast cereals, and also meat and potatoes which had been fried,baked, roasted, grilled or barbecued.

The higher amount eaten by the women in the study was the equivalent to a single packet of crisps, half a pack of biscuits, or a portion of chips a day.

At the start of the study, participants completed a questionnaire that was used to estimate their acrylamide intake.

The 120,000 participants were followed up through the Dutch cancer registries and after 11 years, 327 had developed endometrial (womb) cancer, 300 were diagnosed with ovarian cancer and 1,835 suffered breast cancer.

The study found that women who had eaten 40 milligrams of acrylamide a day (found, for example in a 32 gram pack of crisps) had double the risk of endometrial cancer and ovarian cancer than women in the lowest intake category.

There was no link found to breast cancer. In Britain, about 6,400 women are diagnosed with womb cancer each year and 7,000 with ovarian cancer, one of the highest rates in Europe.