Monday, February 17, 2014

Cancer researchers find genetic risks

A team of researchers from the Department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences at Utah State University has discovered there may be a link between diet and colon cancer — and it may be inheritable across generations.

For the past three years, a team led by Abby Benninghoff, a professor of animal medicine at USU, has been feeding a diet of sugars and carbohydrates to mice.

“The overall goal of our research program is to determine how diet influences cancer risk,” Benninghoff said. “We are studying how a western-type diet that is high in calories and relatively poor in nutrient content increases risk of certain cancers.”

That work demonstrated a likely link between the western diet and cancer. Now the team is trying to determine how ancestral diet influences cancer risk in later generations.

“It’s kind of scary,” said research team member Korry Hintze. “It’s not just how you eat and behave. We now know that what your grandparents eat can have a huge impact on your own health.”

The team has received funding support from the Utah Agriculture Experiment Station and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“The results we have obtained to date are very intriguing,” Benninghoff said. “We plan to continue this work for at least several more years to come.”


Jared Dangerfield, Amanda Grover, Lindsey Hall, Heather Shulsen and Rebecca Wheatley contributed to this article.

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