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Consumers of red meat, which has been barbecued over high heat or open fire, are more open to kidney cancer than non-eaters, says a study from the University of Texas, according to HNGN. 

The study showed that when red meat is cooked over high heat, its muscles would create substances such as heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which would change some part of the DNA. This exposes the consumer to a high cancer risk, says the National Cancer Institute, according to the Journal of Cancer Research. 

The study was made by scientists from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. They studied the specific diet and genetic background of 659 patients who were newly diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma (RCC), one of the typical forms of kidney cancer. They were compared with 699 healthy patients. However, no specific link was found with relation to cooked or barbecued red meat for ailments such as colon, pancreatic and prostate cancers.

Patients with renal cell carcinoma seemed to eat more meat than healthy persons.

"We found elevated RCC risk associated with both meat intake and meat-cooking mutagens, suggesting independent effect of meat-cooking mutagens on RCC risk," Dr. Xifeng Wu, an author of the study said, according to the MD Anderson Cancer Center.

"Our findings support reducing consumption of meat, especially meat cooked at high temperatures or over an open flame as a public health intervention to reduce RCC risk and burden," she added.

Recently, the World Health Organization had reported that processed meats lead to cancer, revealing that 34,000 cancer-related deaths are due to hot dogs, bacon and other such processed meats.

"For an individual, the risk of developing colorectal cancer because of their consumption of processed meat remains small, but this risk increases with the amount of meat consumed," said Kurt Straif, official for the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer, The Washington Post  reported.  "In view of the large number of people who consume processed meat, the global impact on cancer incidence is of public health importance."