Nerdy Science Blog

A team of researchers at Rockefeller University found that Western diet, which is high in fat, and low in fiber, vitamin D and calcium, is associated with colorectal cancer.

Researchers found that high fat diets induce inflammatory response in mice colon, and such inflammation could be the cause for carcinogenesis in mice colon. Carcinogenic process is a process normal cells are transformed into cancer cells. High fat diets will induce oxidative stress and alter immune responses, and this will eventually increases the risk of colorectal cancer.

The result was published in November 2009 issue of The Journal of Nutrition.

Colon cancer is a deadly disease that affects millions of people around the world today and appears to be the third most common form of cancer worldwide. There are also evidence shows that consumption of red meat, processed meat and alcohol are also likely to increase the risk of colorectal cancer.

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Colon cancer has been America’s second biggest killer.  The use of colonoscopy has scared many people from colon cancer screening.  The use of X-ray colon cancer is cheaper and less invasive than the colonoscopy.  The success rate of the new ‘virtual colonoscopy’ a.k.a. computed tomogrpahic (CT) colonography in detecting colon cancers or abnormal growth, which are detected by normal colonoscopy, is as high as 90%.  However misinterpretation of the X-ray can lead to the spotting of polyps, therefore follow-up results are needed to confirm the analysis.  There are other drawbacks of this new technology in detecting colon cancer which need to be further investigated and improved.

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