Occupational and dietary exposure to acrylamide may lower breast cancer survival chances

A new study has found that of patients with estrogen receptor positive breast cancer, those who had higher exposure to acrylamide were 123 percent more likely to die from the disease, compared with those who had lower exposure.

Acrylamide is a probable human carcinogen recognized by the U.S. National Toxicology Program. Along with occupational exposure, people can also be exposed through tobacco smoke and eating foods processed at high temperature such as french fries.

The study involved 24,697 postmenopausal women who were enrolled in a Danish cohort study between 1993 and 1997 in which 420 participants developed breast cancer before 2001 and 110 died before 2009.

Breast cancer is expected to be diagnosed in more than 230,000 U.S. women in 2012. The disease will likely kill 37,000 women in the same year, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Source: Foodconsumer.org