Acrylamide Won't Raise Breast C...(her colleagues followed a group of 10000...),Health

The result: The incidence of breast cancer among women with a high acrylamide intake was about the same as women with low intakes.

That corresponds with findings from a previous study (also by Mucci) of Swedish women that also showed no association between dietary acrylamide and risk of breast cancer. The largest source of dietary acrylamide in U.S. women is french fries, while in Swedish women it is coffee.

The only other published epidemiological study, conducted in Italy, also found no association.

"At the moment, I don't think there is any clear connection between acrylamide and breast cancer," said Shiuan Chen, director and professor of surgical research at City of Hope Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif.

"I thought the results were gratifying," added Robert Tardiff, president of the Sapphire Group and an advisor to the Food Products Association, both in Washington, D.C.

"Here is an example of a situation which caused a great deal of concern based on laboratory studies, and now we have a reasonably definitive study showing that there's no link between acrylamide consumption and breast cancer. So, that's great," he said.

The association found in animal studies could be explained by the high levels of acrylamide they consumed, or by differences in how acrylamide is metabolized in the body, the experts said.

This is not likely to close the door on research into acrylamide, however.

"The food industry has been spending a lot of time and research on how to avoid acrylamide formation in food, and toxicologists are still very interested in looking at acrylamide," Mucci said. "There's also a new animal study with
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