Colorectal cancer, -34% colorectal risk from canned fish consumption

Consuming canned fish cuts the risk of colorectal cancer by over a third. This is the conclusion reached by an Italian study published in the journal ‘Nutrients’. The work, conducted by the Mario Negri Irccs Pharmacological Research Institute of Milan as part of the activities of the Italian Institute for Planetary Health (Iiph), in collaboration with the University of Milan, examines for the first time the effect consumption of canned fish separately from that of fresh fish on the risk of colorectal cancer. The results obtained highlighted a 34% reduction in the risk of developing this type of cancer in people who ate at least two portions of canned fish in oil per week (equal to 80 grams each). “The results that emerged from the study – explains Carlotta Franchi, researcher in the Department of health policies of Mario Negri and scientific coordinator of Iiph, a consortium company born in 2019 from the collaboration between IRCCS and the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart – are a further step forward to argue that the consumption of canned fish in oil can be included in a healthy and balanced diet, being minimally processed, because it is steamed, cleaned, put in oil and canned without preservatives. for public health they can be very relevant “. Because colorectal cancer “has a high incidence and high mortality, both in high-income countries and in low and middle-income countries”, and canned fish is “an increasingly consumed food, thanks to its practicality and its economic accessibility “.” The research – explains Carlo La Vecchia, professor of Epidemiology at the State University of Milan – analyzed the data of two case-control studies which, thanks to the support of the Airc Foundation, were conducted between 1992 and 2010 in various Italian areas, involving a total of 2,419 patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer and 4,723 controls without cancer “. The reduction in the risk of onset, adds Barbara D’Avanzo, researcher at the Mario Negri Department of Health Policies, “is also confirmed if colon and rectal cancer are considered separately. It is possible that the benefits are linked to the content of omega-3 fatty acids or to other nutrients present in the fish itself “. This, concludes Giuseppe Remuzzi, director of Mario Negri and vice president of Iiph, “is a concrete example of the activities we are conducting with the Italian Institute for Planetary Health which, among its objectives, aims to evaluate the role that food has in the prevention of diseases “.