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A Possible Role of Iron Deficiency in Gastric Cancer in Colombia

  • Chapter
Diet and Resistance to Disease

Abstract

Over the past decade it has become increasingly apparent that many, if not most of the diseases that we call cancer, are environmentally induced. In this regard, investigators are probing the relationship of diet to these diseases, with various groups focusing on an etiologic role of specific nutrients in the diet. Others have called attention to the fact that diets throughout the world contain potential carcinogenic substances. These include 1) naturally occurring fungal toxins (i.e., aflatoxins); 2) products derived in the process of cooking; 3) man-made entities such as certain pesticides, herbicides and a wide variety of other industrial chemicals: and 4) nitrosamines produced from nitrates during digestion or during food processing. In this discussion, we would like to consider a hypothesis in which the interaction of chronic iron deficiency and the formation of a putative carcinogen, N-nitroso compound(s), facilitates the development of gastric cancer. In developing this hypothesis, a brief summation of nitrosamines as carcinogens is considered first, and in a generalized way, chemical carcinogenesis and the immunologic aspects of the host tumor relationship are also discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, Boston University School of Medicine, Nutrition-Pathology Unit, Mallory Insititue of Pathology, Boston, Massachusetts, 02118, USA

    Selwyn A. Broitman

  2. Instituto de Ciencias de la Salud Medellin, Colombia, South America

    Hernan Velez

  3. Department of Pathology, Boston University School of Medicine, Nutrition-Pathology Unit, Mallory Insititue of Pathology, Boston, Massachusetts, 02118, USA

    Joseph J. Vitale

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  1. Selwyn A. Broitman
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  2. Hernan Velez
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  3. Joseph J. Vitale
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. U.S. Department of Agriculture Science and Education Administration—Agricultural Research, National Animal Disease Center, Ames, Iowa, 50010, USA

    Marshall Phillips  & Albert Baetz  & 

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© 1981 Plenum Press, New York

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Broitman, S.A., Velez, H., Vitale, J.J. (1981). A Possible Role of Iron Deficiency in Gastric Cancer in Colombia. In: Phillips, M., Baetz, A. (eds) Diet and Resistance to Disease. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9200-6_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9200-6_9

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