Cooking meats in on open-flame grills or with other forms of direct heat creates tasty bits of char but also carcinogens called heterocyclic amines or HCA.
However, researchers have found that aspirin may reduce the cancer-causing effects of flame-broiled and grilled foods in women who eat the seared meats often.
In a study of 312 women with breast cancer and 316 cancer-free study subjects, women who reported eating flame-broiled food more than twice a month were 1.7 times more likely to develop breast cancer than women who never ate them.
Breast cancer risk was further increased in those who ate flame-broiled foods more than twice a month and had genetic traits that helped them rapidly metabolize enzymes called N-acetyltransferases that are often found in the gut, liver and breast. The digested enzymes activate the cancer-causing HCAs.
“We also found that within the highest risk group, women who reported using aspirin significantly reduced their breast cancer risk to the same levels as those who never ate flame-broiled foods,” says Johns Hopkins epidemiologist and oncologist Kala Visvanathan, M.D., M.H.S., who is the first author of the study.
The researchers say further lab work to better understand the biological connection between aspirin, flame-broiled foods, and breast cancer.
To cut the exposure to cancer-trggering amines, experts suggest marinating meat, frequently flipping it while cooking, or microwaving it.
