The cooked meat carcinogen PhIP—found in fried bacon, fish, and chicken—may not only trigger cancer and promote tumor growth, but also increase its metastatic potential, by increasing its invasiveness.
PhIP: The Three-Strikes Breast Carcinogen
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Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
As we’ve seen, the cooked meat carcinogen, PhIP, can cause DNA mutations that may initiate a tumor, may then promote the growth of the cancer, due to its potent estrogenic activity, and the third strike is that PhIP may then promote the invasiveness of breast cancer cells.
The way breast tumors kill is by metastasis; it’s got to invade surrounding tissues and organs. The way you test invasiveness is you put cancer cells into what’s called an invasion chamber. Cancer cells go on the top, on one side of a membrane with tiny pores, these little gray circles. This is the underside of the filter, showing no invasion. But, add some estrogen, and you can see a few cancer cells peeking through.
Add some PhIP, and they really start going on the move. More breast cancer cell invasion-promoting than straight estrogen. They conclude that “in addition to its well characterised genotoxic potential [DNA-mutation causing potential], PhIP is potently estrogenic…, is capable of powerful hormonal activity…and is able to potently stimulate breast cancer cells to invade through a…membrane model. [This] finding that PhIP is able to exert this pro-invasive [appearance] in breast cancer cells at such low concentrations is remarkable. The genetic [toxicity] of the compound coupled to its ability to enhance cell proliferation and invasion indicates that PhIP can act not only to initiate the carcinogenic process, but also to promote it.”
The problem is, they say, that “Exposure to PhIP is difficult to avoid because of its presence in many commonly consumed cooked meats, particularly chicken, beef and fish.”
But if you’re able to somehow dodge cooked meats, and don’t suck on a cigarette, tailpipe, or incinerator smokestack, maybe it’s not so difficult to avoid, after all.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Holland RD, Gehring T, Taylor J, Lake BG, Gooderham NJ, Turesky RJ. Formation of a mutagenic heterocyclic aromatic amine from creatinine in urine of meat eaters and vegetarians. Chem. Res. Toxicol. 2005 18(3):579 - 590
- Steck SE, Gaudet MM, Eng SM, Britton JA, Teitelbaum SL, Neugut AI, Santella RM, Gammon MD. Cooked meat and risk of breast cancer--lifetime versus recent dietary intake. Epidemiology 2007 18(3):373 - 382
- Rohrmann S, Jung SUL, Linseisen J, Pfau W. Dietary intake of meat and meat-derived heterocyclic aromatic amines and their correlation with DNA adducts in female breast tissue. Mutagenesis 2009 24(2):127 - 132
- Lauber SN, Gooderham NJ. The cooked meat-derived mammary carcinogen 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine promotes invasive behaviour of breast cancer cells. Toxicology 2011 279(1 - 3):139 - 145
- Sinha R, Gustafson DR, Kulldorff M, Wen WQ, Cerhan JR, Zheng W. 2-Amino-1-methyl-6-phenylim- idazo[4,5-b]pyridine, a Carcinogen in High- Temperature-Cooked Meat, and Breast Cancer Risk . Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2000 92(16):1352 - 1354
- Knekt P, Steineck G, Järvinen R, Hakulinen T, Aromaa A. Intake of fried meat and risk of cancer: A follow-up study in Finland. Int. J. Cancer 1994 59(6):756 - 760
- Ronco A, Stefani ED, Mendilaharsu M, Deneo-Pellegrini H. Meat, fat and risk of breast cancer: A case-control study from Uruguay. Int. J. Cancer 1996 65(3):328 - 331
Images thanks to the National Cancer Institute and U.S. Navy photo by Chief Warrant Officer 4 Seth Rossman via Wikimedia
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
As we’ve seen, the cooked meat carcinogen, PhIP, can cause DNA mutations that may initiate a tumor, may then promote the growth of the cancer, due to its potent estrogenic activity, and the third strike is that PhIP may then promote the invasiveness of breast cancer cells.
The way breast tumors kill is by metastasis; it’s got to invade surrounding tissues and organs. The way you test invasiveness is you put cancer cells into what’s called an invasion chamber. Cancer cells go on the top, on one side of a membrane with tiny pores, these little gray circles. This is the underside of the filter, showing no invasion. But, add some estrogen, and you can see a few cancer cells peeking through.
Add some PhIP, and they really start going on the move. More breast cancer cell invasion-promoting than straight estrogen. They conclude that “in addition to its well characterised genotoxic potential [DNA-mutation causing potential], PhIP is potently estrogenic…, is capable of powerful hormonal activity…and is able to potently stimulate breast cancer cells to invade through a…membrane model. [This] finding that PhIP is able to exert this pro-invasive [appearance] in breast cancer cells at such low concentrations is remarkable. The genetic [toxicity] of the compound coupled to its ability to enhance cell proliferation and invasion indicates that PhIP can act not only to initiate the carcinogenic process, but also to promote it.”
The problem is, they say, that “Exposure to PhIP is difficult to avoid because of its presence in many commonly consumed cooked meats, particularly chicken, beef and fish.”
But if you’re able to somehow dodge cooked meats, and don’t suck on a cigarette, tailpipe, or incinerator smokestack, maybe it’s not so difficult to avoid, after all.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Holland RD, Gehring T, Taylor J, Lake BG, Gooderham NJ, Turesky RJ. Formation of a mutagenic heterocyclic aromatic amine from creatinine in urine of meat eaters and vegetarians. Chem. Res. Toxicol. 2005 18(3):579 - 590
- Steck SE, Gaudet MM, Eng SM, Britton JA, Teitelbaum SL, Neugut AI, Santella RM, Gammon MD. Cooked meat and risk of breast cancer--lifetime versus recent dietary intake. Epidemiology 2007 18(3):373 - 382
- Rohrmann S, Jung SUL, Linseisen J, Pfau W. Dietary intake of meat and meat-derived heterocyclic aromatic amines and their correlation with DNA adducts in female breast tissue. Mutagenesis 2009 24(2):127 - 132
- Lauber SN, Gooderham NJ. The cooked meat-derived mammary carcinogen 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine promotes invasive behaviour of breast cancer cells. Toxicology 2011 279(1 - 3):139 - 145
- Sinha R, Gustafson DR, Kulldorff M, Wen WQ, Cerhan JR, Zheng W. 2-Amino-1-methyl-6-phenylim- idazo[4,5-b]pyridine, a Carcinogen in High- Temperature-Cooked Meat, and Breast Cancer Risk . Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2000 92(16):1352 - 1354
- Knekt P, Steineck G, Järvinen R, Hakulinen T, Aromaa A. Intake of fried meat and risk of cancer: A follow-up study in Finland. Int. J. Cancer 1994 59(6):756 - 760
- Ronco A, Stefani ED, Mendilaharsu M, Deneo-Pellegrini H. Meat, fat and risk of breast cancer: A case-control study from Uruguay. Int. J. Cancer 1996 65(3):328 - 331
Images thanks to the National Cancer Institute and U.S. Navy photo by Chief Warrant Officer 4 Seth Rossman via Wikimedia
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Title
PhIP: The Three-Strikes Breast Carcinogen
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
The “difficult to avoid” line reminds me of the cop-out in the Dead Meat Bacteria Endotoxemia video. This is the second of a four-part video series on heterocyclic amines—carcinogens such as PhIP—that are formed when meat is cooked. In Estrogenic Cooked Meat Carcinogens, I noted that, in addition to being able to cause the initial DNA damage that may trigger breast cancer, these chemicals may act as potent estrogens, promoting the growth of such tumors as well.
The growth hormone IGF-1 may also promote tumor progression and invasion (see IGF-1 as One-Stop Cancer Shop). IGF-1 is released by our liver in response to animal protein consumption. Why? See Higher Quality May Mean Higher Risk.
On the other hand, broccoli and Indian gooseberries may have both anti-proliferative and anti-invasive properties: Lung Cancer Metastases & Broccoli, and Amla vs. Cancer Cell Invasion.
In Reducing Cancer Risk In Meat-Eaters, I’ll note some ways for non-vegetarians to mediate their risk.
For further context, be sure to check out my associated blog posts: Estrogenic Chemicals in Meat; Avoid Cooked Meat Carcinogens; and Foods that May Block Cancer Formation.
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