Date:30/12/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/12/30/stories/2004123004910300.htm

Kerala - Thrissur

`Fast food could trigger cancer'

By Our Staff Reporter

THRISSUR, DEC. 29. A reported increase in the number of fast food joints may lead to a higher incidence of cancer in India, Brahma P. Sani, cancer researcher and senior scientist at the Southern Research Institute at Alabama in the U.S., has said.

Mr. Sani, who hails from Manalur, was here on Tuesday to give a lecture at the Jubilee Mission Medical College.

He said that fast food joints, which were popular especially among the youth, reused oil and this could cause cancer. ``The manner in which food is cooked is also important. The Japanese suffer from stomach cancer because they cook food at very high temperature for longer periods.''

Mr. Sani's research focuses on the chemo-preventive properties of natural products and micro-minerals, Vitamin A compounds (retinoids) that prevent epithelial cancer and the molecular mechanism in the action of retinoic acid and selenium.

His research has discovered specific binding proteins that mediate the action of retinoids.

Mr. Sani, who has been a cancer researcher for 30 years, won a $ 2.5 million research grant for his work. He is a member of two committees of the National Institute of Health, which funds 80 to 90 per cent of the U.S.-based cancer research. His work has also been funded by the National Cancer Institute, American Institute of Cancer Research, Tobacco Research Council and the World Health Organisation.

He has published more than 100 original papers in international journals.

``Vitamin A and related carotenoid compounds play a major role in preventing cancer. As potent antioxidants and immune modulators, they are of crucial importance to health,'' he said.