Zinc/esophageal cancer link?
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
A high concentration of zinc in tissue from esophageal biopsy specimens "was strongly associated with a reduced risk of developing esophageal squamous cell carcinoma," Christian Abnet PhD, NCI, et al., report in the Feb. 16 Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Researchers used x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy to measure the levels of zinc and other minerals in biopsy specimens because the direct measure of elements in tissues "has advantages over other methods of measuring zinc levels," the authors explain. "Estimating zinc intake on the basis of nutrient density in diet is complicated by the dramatic differences in zinc bioavailability created by other dietary constituents," they add. The tissue specimens were taken from 440 residents of Linzhou, China in 1985, and were tracked through May 2001...