Vegetarians Have Lower Cancer Risk, UK Study

A 12-year study that followed over 60,000 Britons, half of whom were vegetarian, suggests that vegetarians had a lower risk of developing cancer than meat-eaters. ... The study was the work of Dr Naomi Allen, an epidemiologist at Oxford University, and colleagues from the UK and New Zealand, and is published in the 16 June advance access issue of the British Journal of Cancer.

Allen told the press: "This is strong evidence that vegetarians have lower rates of cancer than meat eaters." ...

For some cancers like leukaemia, stomach and bladder cancers, the risk was considerably lower, with vegetarians 45 per cent less likely to contract one of these cancers than meat eaters, but for other cancers such as prostate, breast and bowel cancer, the risk was much the same for vegetarians and meat eaters.

One of the things that stood out, was the fact that vegetarians appeared to have much lower risk of getting cancers of the lymph and blood. When these were grouped, vegetarians had about 50 per cent lower risk than meat eaters. And in one rare cancer in particular, multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow, vegetarians were 75 per cent less likely to develop the disease compared to meat eaters. ...

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155965.php