Researchers through a new study have found that eating red and white meat can increase the risk of kidney cancer. The findings of the study were published in the journal Cancer.

The team of researchers led by Xifeng Wu of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston studied the diet and genetic risk factor of almost 659 patients who were recently diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma and 699 healthy controls.

Researchers have cautioned that although the study was small for the epidemiological project, it was limited to non-Hispanic whites.

Some previous studies that linked eating meat with cancer included the one reported on October 26 by the World Health Organization, which showed that eating red or white meat can cause colorectal cancer.

Another study released on December found that red meat increases the risk of cancer and other diseases because it contains an inflammation-causing chemical unnatural to human biology.

Researcher in the new study found an increased risk of kidney cancer among people who frequently ate white or red meat. “Nearly 2-fold increase in RCC risk associated with dietary MeIQx intake and a 54% increased risk associated with PhIP intake, suggesting that the intake of meat cooked at high temperatures may impact the risk of RCC through mechanisms related to mutagenic cooking compounds”, the study stated.

According to the American Cancer Society, the lifetime risk of developing kidney cancer is about 1.6%. The lifetime risk of prostate cancer in men is 14%; for women, the lifetime risk of breast cancer is 8%.