The Link between Acrylamide and Cancer

Acrylamide, a substance that was discovered fairly recently in a variety of fried and starch-based food products, can also be found in high concentrations in tobacco smoke.

The discovery of acrylamide in fried and starch-based food products led to a flurry of research to examine its possible ability to cause cancer.  It has since been linked to cancer in laboratory animals, leading the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to hold an emergency meeting last year (2003) in Switzerland to discuss these possible health complications.

A new report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute provides proof that acrylamide can lead to cancer-causing DNA changes in mammalian cells.  Scientists at the Beckman Research Institute at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, CA, found that treatment of mouse embryonic fibroblast cells with acrylamide induced the formation of DNA adducts, and increased the frequency of mutations at specific locations along the gene, both of which may be instrumental in tumor formation.

Life Extension, February 2004