Salted Meat Consumption and the Risk of Cancer: a Multisite Case-Control Study in Uruguay

Background: Previous studies have suggested that a high intake of salted meat may increase the risk ofesophageal and stomach cancers, but the results are not conclusive.
Methods: We used polytomous logisticregression to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between saltedmeat intake and the risk of several cancers in a case-control study from Uruguay that was conducted between1988 and 2005. The study included 13,050 participants (9,252 cases and 3,798 controls) which were drawn fromthe four major public health hospitals in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Results: Salted meat intake was significantlyassociated with increased odds of cancers of the oesophagus (OR=2.28, 95% CI: 1.75-2.97), colon and rectum(OR=1.53, 95% CI: 1.16-2.03), lung (OR=1.57, 95% CI: 1.26-1.97), cervix uteri (OR=1.76, 95% CI: 1.05-2.25),prostate (OR=1.60, 95% CI: 1.18-2.17), urinary bladder (OR=2.23, 95% CI: 1.63-3.04), kidney (OR=1.62, 95%CI: 1.03-2.54) and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (OR=1.81, 95% CI: 1.12-2.95).
Conclusion: Our results confirmprevious reports of an elevated risk of oesophageal cancer with higher intake of salted meat, but also suggestthat salted meat intake may increase the risk of several other cancers.