October 8. 2008 – IR Summary/BBC - Some researchers from Oxford University have concluded that eating meat and the dairy products may increase the risk of prostate cancer, it’s better to avoid taking meat as far as possible to check the risk of prostate cancer.

Even otherwise, such a diet raises levels of a hormone called Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1) which promotes cell growth.  As per University of Oxford, their team has examined the results of   12 studies, featuring a total of nearly 9,000 men.

They found men with high blood levels of IGF-1 were up to 40% more likely to develop prostate cancer than those with low levels.

The study appears in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

IGF-1 plays a key role in the growth and development of children and adolescents.
In adults it continues to regulate cell growth and death, but it can also inhibit the death of cells which have come to the end of their natural life cycle.
 
However, the lead researcher Dr Andrew Roddam said the degree to which diet influenced IGF-1 levels was unclear. But he said levels could be up to 15% higher in people who ate a lot of meat and dairy products.

Dr Roddam said: "There is a need to identify risk factors for prostate cancer, especially those which can be targeted by therapy and/or lifestyle changes.

"Now we know this factor is associated with the disease we can start to examine how diet and lifestyle factors can affect its levels and whether changes could reduce a man's risk."
Dr Roddam said raised levels of IGF-1 were likely not only to increase the risk of developing prostate cancer, but also to aid the spread of tumours.

Research shows that cells fed IGF-1 grow much more quickly. More