Eating too much red meat has been identified as the cause of colorectal cancer which is the third most common type of cancer in the world. Although the link between eating red meat and cancer has been identified, how it happens was only discovered by a team of researchers from Singapore this week.
Researchers from the National Cancer Center Singapore (NCCS) and the Singapore Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) found that iron in red meat reactivates the telomerase enzyme that promotes growth in colorectal cancer cells.
In the body the telomeres on the DNA will get shorter with each division. When division can no longer be done, body cells will age. But telemorase can rebuild telomeres. The problem is that if the division happens without control, it will produce colorectal cancer tumor cells.
With the mechanism of how colorectal cancer is produced by eating too much red meat known, scientists at NCCS and A*STAR are also discovering how it can be treated. A molecule called SP2509 was found to prevent reactivation of telemerase in cancer cells when interacting with iron molecules. This at the same time prevents the development of colorectal cancer tumor cells from happening.
Colorectal cancer is the most common cancer among Malaysian men with 15 in 100,000 men and the second most common cancer among Malaysian women (11 in 100,000). It is the third leading cause of death from cancer in Malaysia. This is the impetus for Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) to develop an early detection test for colorectal cancer using blood in Malaysia this year.