
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 6, 1993                   TAG: 9310060092
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

RED MEAT EATERS FACE ADDED RISK

Heavy consumption of animal fat, especially the fat in red meat, appears to increase the chance that a man will develop advanced prostate cancer, scientists from Harvard University and the Mayo Clinic reported Wednesday.

After analyzing the health records and self-described eating habits of more than 47,000 men, the scientists concluded that men whose diets included large quantities of red meat were more than 2 1/2 times as likely as those who ate little red meat to develop an advanced form of the cancer.

On the other hand, scientists said, the records do not indicate that the amount or type of fat in a man's diet has anything to do with whether he develops prostate cancer to begin with.

Rather, the results suggest that fat may play some role in "switching on" common, benign forms of prostate cancer, causing them to develop into deadly advanced forms.

"I would say that if a man is considering reducing his intake of red meat, this would give him another reason to do so," said Dr. Edward Giovannucci of the Harvard School of Medicine, one of the scientists who performed the study.

Prostate cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer, affecting up to 30 percent of all men, scientists say. However, most men never realize they have it, because slow-growing benign forms do not reach levels serious enough to even be diagnosed.

For thousands of others, the disease is deadly. It is the second leading cause of cancer death among American men, behind lung cancer.

Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.

by CNB