20-30 types of cancer and animal products (eggs, fish, milk, meat)

Here's an overview of the threads we have presenting articles about the link between between very common types of cancer and consumption of animal products. The types of cancer that aren't listed here may also be associated with consuming animal products, but either these studies don't exist yet, or we haven't come across them yet.

There's no scientific reason to claim that animal products may have a negative effect on all types of cancer (including those not caused by animal products). But all the information in these articles appear to me as a rather overwhelming indication that we'll see more studies in the future - both confirming the findings that already exist and links between animal products and other types of cancer. (It's so likely that I right now googled liver cancer meat, since liver cancer isn't mentioned in these threads and will post what I found in a separate thread.)

Is 'processed' meat only the problem - or cholesterol, high dietary fat etc? [Breast cancer]

Dietary cholesterol, animal protein, B12 & four tumor types [Esophageal cancer, adenocarcinoma of the gastric cardia (cardiac part of stomach), esophageal squamous cell carcinoma [lower end of the esophagus?], and noncardia gastric adenocarcinoma (lower stomach cancers)]

Red Meat 'Linked To Breast Cancer'

Several studies link high B12 and meat intake to esophageal cancer


Cancer, adaptation and the definition of 'omnivores'
[Pancreatic Cancer and much more]

Cancer and animal products [Colon/bowel, breast, prostate, ovarian, uterine and lung cancer]

Dr. Joel Fuhrman: Childhood Diet Predicts Adult Cancer Risk


Meat Consumption Increases Risk of Breast Cancer

Red Meat and Dairy Products Significantly Increase Risk of Pancreatic Cancer


Meat and Bladder Cancer
[Bladder cancer, testicular cancer]

Antioxidants and cancer [Vegan food is high in antioxidants, animal products are not]

Cancer patients go vegan


Fast food chicken contains cancer-causing chemicals; warning labels sought


Professor T. Colin Campbell PhD on animal protein and cancer


Milk and Prostate Cancer: New Evidence


Plant consumption and health risks
[Many links related to colorectal, lung, hormone related cancer and more]

Red meat and cold cuts linked to colorectal cancer


Cancerous Sausages and Western Diet Risk[Breast cancer]

Vegetables & Fruits Double Breast Cancer Survival Rates


Another cancer study
[Stomach, bladder, Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Multiple myeloma, leukaemia]

is a plant-based diet a cure for cancer?

Getting the Best Nutritional Advice with Cancer

ETA Jan 21: Here are links to the threads added after this message was posted:

Dr. Brian Clement about meat, cancer and diabetes type 2

Milk link to ovarian cancer risk


Milk and breast/prostate/testicular cancer


Increased meat intake associated with with an increase risk of kidney cancer


Meat consumption, particularly red meat, increases endometrial cancer risk


Bacon, Skinless Chicken May Cause Bladder Cancer

Small intestine cancer and animal fats

Salted meat consumption associated with oropharyngeal cancer risk


Beef and mutton associated with increased risk of gallbladder cancer


Meat and cancer of the mouth, pharynx, nasopharynx, larynx and more

Meat and brain cancer: conflicting articles


Red meat and liver cancer


Eggs and some dairy products associated with increased risk for colon cancer?

Egg consumption and cancer of the colon and rectum

Barbecued meat once a week increases risk of esophageal cancer (Argentina)

Data from 34 countries: Eggs and colon, rectal and bladder cancer

Eating meat raises skin cancer risk

I am just reading the China Study - all animal products (IMO and backed up by the vast amount of evidence in this book) are VERY bad for us as humans. I really wish people could be given proper nutritional advice when they get sick. The western diet is making people very sick indeed.

Thank you for the links!

I've send some to my family, I don't do it often because they don't appreciate me doing this, but then again some of them are so much in denial and this in combination with them often preaching about how bad my choices are being vegan, hopefully this will help them keep quiet for a while.

The China Study is one of the books that got me interested in going vegan. Another good one to show omnis the nutritional side is Becoming Vegan by Brenda Davis. I bought it when I decided to seriously go vegan.

http://www.brendadavisrd.com/

Hmmmm ...

The Inuit and Mongolian diet are two of the most commonly known diets that consist almost entirely of nowt but animal products and meat.

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The Inuit in Canada's far north have lifespans 12 to 15 years shorter than the average Canadian's, government data showed on Wednesday, putting the aboriginal people on a par with developing countries such as Guatemala and Mongolia.

Reuters

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And ... Bingo!

Out of three cultures with worringly short lifespans the two best known 'almost entirely meat' cultures are both there.

I added some more links to the first post - to threads started after that message was posted.

So far, links between these 23 (29) types of cancer and animal products are mentioned:


Stomach, including adenocarcinoma of the gastric cardia (cardiac part of stomach) and Noncardia gastric adenocarcinoma (lower stomach cancers)
Esophageal cancer, including esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (lower end of the esophagus)
Breast cancer
Colon/bowel cancer
Prostate cancer
Ovarian cancer
Uterine cancer
Lung cancer
Pancreatic Cancer
Bladder cancer
Gallbladder cancer
Testicular cancer
Colorectal (rectum) cancer
Hormone related cancer
Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (the lymphatic cells of the immune system)
Multiple myeloma/bone marrow/cancer of plasma cells/leukemia
Oropharyngeal, pharynx, nasopharynx, larynx (mouth) cancer
Brain cancer
Liver cancer
Skin cancer
Small intestine cancer
Kidney cancer
Endometrial cancer

This list pretty much also serves as an overview of the 20-30 most common types of cancer, which is why I believe that cancer types I didn't come across while googling this topic very likely also are associated with animal product intake (but not exclusively, of course).

That list is just staggering. Of course if you even dare mention that lifestyle choices such as eating meat and dairy contributes to cancer, your statement is dismissed because you are vegan and know nothing about eating 'proper'. In this day and age of easy access information is ignorance about nutrition acceptable? I doubt that many people are really interested and/or don't bother to investigate further than a biased newspaper article. A case of ignorance is deadly.....

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Of course if you even dare mention that lifestyle choices such as eating meat and dairy contributes to cancer, your statement is dismissed because you are vegan and know nothing about eating 'proper'.

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Although some people aren't updated about the increasing number of studies which links animal products to a lot of serious diseases, I think this has changed (for most people).... both because the number of studies associating animal products with many different cancer types is overwhelming, and because the research on cancer/animal products isn't funded or performed by vegans.

The list over plants and plant products which have preventive or positive/healing effect on cancer and other serious diseases is also getting longer and longer. Many of the studies referred to in this thread mention that increasing the intake of plant food is beneficial from a cancer perspective. The skepticism against not only meat and dairy products becomes more and more widespread, which - I guess - is why we'll keep seeing things like eg. the National Milk Mustache “got milk?” campaign.

And it's not only about cancer. Humans simply need a lot more plant foods and less animal foods. A couple of days ago, yet another study (a large one, observing 300,000 people for eight years) confirmed that increasing plant intake also prevent heart disease. We'll probably see a quantum leap in terms of studies which confirms how important plant foods are for humans, and how questionable animal products are. I believe that in only 5-10 years from now an average person in his early twenties will have heard about all studies, because a lot has changed only in the last decade.

When Donald Watson wrote, 50-60 years ago, that he 'hoped' that a vegan diet would be at least as healthy as a standard diet - he probably had no idea that so many studies now confirm not only that we don't need animal products, but that it's better to replace them with plant foods.

I hope you are right Korn, and I hope to live long enough to see it.

Thanks for keeping us up to date!

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Korn

Although some people aren't updated about the increasing number of studies which links animal products to a lot of serious diseases, I think this has changed (for most people).... both because the number of studies associating animal products with many different cancer types is overwhelming, and because the research on cancer/animal products isn't funded or performed by vegans.

The list over plants and plant products which have preventive or positive/healing effect on cancer and other serious diseases is also getting longer and longer. Many of the studies referred to in this thread mention that increasing the intake of plant food is beneficial from a cancer perspective. The skepticism against not only meat and dairy products becomes more and more widespread, which - I guess - is why we'll keep seeing things like eg. the National Milk Mustache “got milk?” campaign.

And it's not only about cancer. Humans simply need a lot more plant foods and less animal foods. A couple of days ago, yet another study (a large one, observing 300,000 people for eight years) confirmed that increasing plant intake also prevent heart disease. We'll probably see a quantum leap in terms of studies which confirms how important plant foods are for humans, and how questionable animal products are. I believe that in only 5-10 years from now an average person in his early twenties will have heard about all studies, because a lot has changed only in the last decade.

When Donald Watson wrote, 50-60 years ago, that he 'hoped' that a vegan diet would be at least as healthy as a standard diet - he probably had no idea that so many studies now confirm not only that we don't need animal products, but that it's better to replace them with plant foods.

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I hope you're right and people really will know about these studies in the future. Whenever I tell people now for some reason most just don't really believe me, or perhaps they don't want to believe.. I love hearing about these studies though. I love reading them and knowing we're all doing what's better for this world and better for our health!

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khadagan

I hope you're right and people really will know about these studies in the future. Whenever I tell people now for some reason most just don't really believe me, or perhaps they don't want to believe.. I love hearing about these studies though. I love reading them and knowing we're all doing what's better for this world and better for our health!

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Thanks again for all these links Korn.. my frustration is that I am so time limited I have only managed to follow up a few of the links so far.:(

Like khadagan I want to tell people about the studies but am a bit of a dilemma...

As I have mentioned on other threads I work for Macmillan. My post involves advising and supporting clients in all stages of cancer with finances,employment, housing and family issues. What it doesnt involve is questioning treatment programmes or suggesting alternatives. Such intervention is way outside my remit and being new in post would probably have me frog marched to the door! The fact that I am Vegan would inevitably used to question the validity of what I was telling patients and I would be accused of 'veggie-brainwashing' anyway.

So I am left listening to patients relay consultant advice to up meat intake to give you strength to cope with Chemo-therapy etc and aware that they are all bulking up on 'wholesome ' meat and two veg. Often this is against the signals from their own bodies which are naturally rejecting meat at this time.

Apart from the obvious career issues that would arise as a result of me spreading this information there is the sensitivity of the clients to consider.

Client with a terminal prognosis hanging over their heads have enough physical and emotional burdens to carry without adding to them by making them aware that had they been given this information in the past they could have avoided, or at least halted the growth of their cancer.

Clients with a recent diagnosis may see the information as a 'lifeline' and desperately cling to the hope that they are not too late to halt the progress of their cancer only to feel betrayed and angry if it does not. They too would then be left with the knowledge that given the information earlier they may have been able to change their diet and lessen their chances of ending up in this situation.

But nowhere in the arena I work have I heard a word uttered about these studies.(what a surprise). I can only hope that the volume of this emerging research increases to an extent that 'leakage' becomes unavoidable.

Slack Alice

To Slack Alice, I think it will take a really long time for most people to learn about effects of animal food on health. I think the first thing that needs to change is that anyone in the health profession needs to become aware, but this is a really slow process and is very much not stimulated by any governments. The information is out there though and can be found by people who look for it.

I understand your frustration very well. I used to work for the biggest cancer charity in Holland for years, but also not in an advisory function. One of the things I did was showing people around the national cancer hospital, had doctors speak to them, even showed them the departments where mice were being tested on, let them learn about the entire process and afterwards served them ham and cheese sandwiches and a glass of dairy milk. It's completely backwards. Now I have to say that I didn't know about meat causing cancer and all the other links that you have between certain foods and cancer, eventhough I was a vegan of many years then. At my work most people thought I was a bit extreme being vegan, apart from one or two veggies everyone else was omni and I think that eventhough the actual findings of studies were in the building people were still not convinced that animal products are very harmful. I remember reading our newsbulletins about the latest findings and everyone just shugged their shoulders saying things like 'well it doesn't matter what you do, you're always doing something wrong that gives you cancer anyway' and that was the general consensus, so nobody felt the need to make any changes. Thinking back the cafeteria didn't serve anything vegan either, so I always brought my own food in. I think it will have to take a lot of time for this information to sink in with the general public and establishments and I don't think I will live long enough to see any actual changes (and I'm not that old!). Changing ones food habits is so intimate and personal, I think it feels for a lot of people that if you tell them what to put into their mouths is just a step to far, no matter how harmful it is what they're doing. It's not just leaving one product, animal foods are in almost everything they have.

Anyway, I hope I'm making my point, feels like I'm making a few, but it might sound a bit confusing, my head is all over the place, doing everything at once at the moment ;) I do hope like yourself that this information will reach everyone and it will become general knowledge and that omni's will one day become just a perverse minority.

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SlackAlice

But nowhere in the arena I work have I heard a word uttered about these studies.(what a surprise). I can only hope that the volume of this emerging research increases to an extent that 'leakage' becomes unavoidable.

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I think this will change. The new official recommendations from the Norwegian government has recently been adjusted, and people are generally warned against consuming more than 500g red meat per week. One of the mentioned reasons is the link between red meat and cancer.

Mainstream media have an increased rate of reporting links between cancer types and diet (and not only red meat).

I'm not really surprised that heath experts who had their education back in the 60s, 70s and 80s (and 90s) aren't always updated on links between eg. cancer and animal products. What worries me more is that if you visit most vegan sites - which of course supports living on a vegan diet and therefore also should inform about the health risks involved in consuming animal products - lots of essential info is missing there as well! This means that if a layman or specialist visit these sites to see if they can document health risks caused by eating animal products, they (often) won't find much relevant info.

The big question, I guess, is: what is it in animal products that increases cancer risk? Is it the processing (eg. cooking, frying etc) itself, or is it something that always has been in animal products? The answer is probably that it's a combination, and I just came a cross an article that isn't directly linked to the meat (etc) and cancer discussion, but which still could be relevant, since it (not surprisingly) links growth hormones and cancer.

Milk products contain natural growth hormones... that is - growth hormones that are natural for baby calves. In many countries non-natural growth hormones to animals are given to kettle, and meat from these countries are apparently imported to countries which never use growth hormones to make the calves grow faster into large, profitable. Nine out of 10 U.S. calves are treated with hormonal growth promoters. Growth hormones are also given to cows to make them produce more milk.

http://www.preventcancer.com/consumers/general/milk.htm
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/.../11-dairy.html

Both natural (to cows) and artificial growth hormones are probably associated with the increased cancer rates for people who live on animal products. And most people who are vegan today weren't raised as vegans - their history of cancer promoting products would have look a lot better if they were raised on a plant based diet. I think what we are seeing today is just the top of the iceberg. But dear forumers - please contact your fav. vegan organization and encourage them to share this info. As we know (as seen eg. in th eYouTube link below), there are plenty of people out there who tries hard to prevent people from spreading the outcome of such studies.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trWcq...layer_embedded

More UK government advice about limiting meat consumption today:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12571576

...with the usual flannel about "enjoying meat in moderation" however :mad:

Eating Eggs Linked to Cancer
October 3, 2011

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Eating eggs is linked to developing prostate cancer, according to a new National Institutes of Health-funded study. By consuming 2.5 eggs per week, men increased their risk for a deadly form of prostate cancer by 81 percent, compared with men who consumed less than half an egg per week. Researchers followed 27,607 men who were part of the Health Professionals Follow-up Study from 1994 to 2008. For men who already had prostate cancer, eating poultry and processed red meat increased their risk for death.

Richman EL, Kenfield SA, Stampfer MJ, Giovannucci EL, Chan JM. Egg, red meat, and poultry intake and risk of lethal prostate cancer in the prostate specific antigen-era: incidence and survival. Cancer Prev Res. Published ahead of print September 19, 2011; DOI:10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-11-0354.

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Also reported eg. here and here.

If animal products either causes cancer, or won't cause cancer directly, but affect the development of cancer negatively, we should see that people who don't use animal products have better life expectancy/survival rates than people who use animal products. Here are some interesting links:
Vegetarian Diets and the Incidence of Cancer in a Low-risk Population. [PMID: 23169929, Feb 2013]

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A total of 2,939 incident cancer cases were identified. The multivariate HR of overall cancer risk among vegetarians compared with non-vegetarians was statistically significant [HR, 0.92; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.85-0.99] for both genders combined. Also, a statistically significant association was found between vegetarian diet and cancers of the gastrointestinal tract (HR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.63-0.90). When analyzing the association of specific vegetarian dietary patterns, vegan diets showed statistically significant protection for overall cancer incidence (HR, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.72-0.99) in both genders combined and for female-specific cancers (HR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.47-0.92). Lacto-ovo-vegetarians appeared to be associated with decreased risk of cancers of the gastrointestinal system (HR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.60-0.92).]

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Vegan Blood Fights Cancer Better

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The first study put a group of individuals on different diets and dripped their blood on prostate cancer cells growing in Petri dishes to see whose blood is better at suppressing cancer growth. They found that the Standard American Diet (SAD) slows cancer growth by 9%, whereas blood from a person on a vegan diet for a year, slows cancer growth by 70%!
The second study was for women and breast cancer, but instead of waiting a year, individuals were only a vegan diet for two weeks. The study tested the bloods’ ability to fight cancer before they started a vegan diet and after two weeks of being on a vegan diet. They found that after just two weeks on a vegan diet, participants’ blood significantly slowed down and stopped the growth of cancer cells. Their same blood gained the power to significantly fight off cancer cells after just 2 weeks on a vegan diet.

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My Winning Battle with Breast Cancer
http://www.drmcdougall.com/stars/jessica_bowen.htm

We seem to be at less risk of more-or-less all of the 'diseases of affluence'! Makes sense, I suppose. As for what the mechanism might be, might it be possible that vegans have better immune systems than omnis (assuming that we do, of course)? Has anyone done any research into vegans' levels of natural killer cells etc.? The second article in your last post seemed to assume that the vegan blood could do its thing against the cancer cells as the result of a boosted immune system, and that seems plausible to a scientifically semi-literate (more like hemi-semi-literate, if I'm being honest) individual like myself.

Also...does anyone know what vegans do tend to die of?

Well, even if there are all these reports suggesting a link between intake of animal products and cancer, this, as such, doesn't necessarily mean that animal products cause cancer. Some insist that they do, but maybe cancer generally is caused by something else - and that a diet which is plant based generally is better suitable to kill cancer cells, while an animal based diet (either due to the presence of growth hormones,animal proteins or something else) boost cell division in humans which already have cancer.

Or - it could be a so called spurious relationship, where eating unhealthy food and getting cancer both are results of another cause. But based on all the studies linking between cancer and diet (the China Study is full of them, and T. Colin Campbell suggest that animal protein causes cancer), we'll probably see evidence that there's something in animal products which may cause cancer, independent of spurious relationships etc. The link could be to animal fats, exaggerated B12 levels, animal proteins, growth hormones or a mix of some of these ingredients. Looking at the studios above and other references, many insist that we already know enough to warn against animal products for the cancer reason alone.

But - to suggest that living on an animal free diet means a 100% guarantee against cancer would be naive, since there are so many other things which can cause cancer: tobacco, genetics, body weight, too much alcohol, certain medical tests/treatments, certain viruses, too much sun exposure, radiation, asbestos/arsenic, certain infectious diseases, certain chemicals (eg benzene), high-salt diets and even betel nut chewing.

Nevertheless... cancer.org, which is not a vegan site, highlights these three factors:

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Except for quitting smoking, some of the most important things you can do to help reduce your cancer risk are:
• Get to and stay at a healthy weight throughout life.
• Be physically active on a regular basis.
• Make healthy food choices with a focus on plant-based foods.

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People who aren't interested in going vegan would be better off by reducing their intake of animal products - unless it's already low/very low, and that's true even if someone at some point would prove that animal products as such aren't directly causing cancer but "only" affects how cancer develops/cancer survival rates. This is probably at least as important for people who don't have cancer as it is for those who have cancer.

Childhood dairy intake and adult cancer risk: 65-y follow-up of the Boyd Orr cohort. [PMID: 18065592]

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Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Dairy consumption affects biological pathways associated with carcinogenesis. Evidence for a link between cancer risk and dairy consumption in adulthood is increasing, but associations with childhood dairy consumption have not been studied adequately.

...

CONCLUSIONS:
A family diet rich in dairy products during childhood is associated with a greater risk of colorectal cancer in adulthood. Confirmation of possible underlying biological mechanisms is needed.

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'Stop Feeding your Cancer' - Dublin doctor shows patients how to beat cancer

I don't like headlines like this, because they appear to present something which will serve as a miracle cure. Nevertheless, here's the article (my emphasis):


http://cdn3.independent.ie/incoming/...rJohnKelly.PNG

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Over the past ten years Dr Kelly has used the diet with his cancer patients, all of whom have beaten the killer disease as a result.
The details of Dr. Kelly's revolutionary approach are published this weekend in his new book titled Stop Feeding Your Cancer.
In the book Dr Kelly gives the case histories of half a dozen of his patients who have survived deadly cancers by going on an animal protein free diet (no meat, no dairy produce).
The link between animal protein and cancer has been known for a decade, but it has been ignored by the medical profession which still relies on surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy to fight the disease.
Dr Kelly, who heads up a large practise at Sutton Cross on the north side of Dublin, appears to be the first GP to encourage his patients with cancer to try the diet.
He has kept a detailed record of the results over the past nine years, showing that the diet can switch cancer growth off, reversing it into a dormant state, and effectively cure the patient.
The visionary Dublin doctor says in the book that cancer specialists are ignoring his data because they are sceptical of a dietary approach which they regard as unreliable "alternative" medicine.
But Dr Kelly says that his painstaking trial conducted with his own patients is compelling evidence and may change our view of cancer treatment forever.
The son of a prominent psychiatrist, Dr Kelly studied and worked in Ireland, Africa and the US before setting up as a GP in Dublin more than forty years ago.
His interest in the science of nutrition led to his personal study of the alternative approach to cancer treatment and his new book.

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Here's a study which concludes that "Our study suggests that eating a diet high in total protein and certain unsaturated FAs is associated with decreased risk of developing pancreaticcancer in a dose-dependent manner, whereas fats found in dairy increase risk."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24590454 [PMID:24590454]