Is There Any Association Between Processed Meat Consumption and Colorectal Cancer Risk in Morocco?

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most commonly diagnosed malignancy and the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. A large body of epidemiologic research show that countries where people eat more red meat and processed meat are also countries where the risk of CRC is high. The processed meat intake was described as a convincing risk factor for CRC according to the recent report of the World Cancer Research Fund published in 2017. In Morocco the incidence of CRC is increased significantly during the last years according to the Cancer Registry of the Greater Casablanca region. In addition to the imported of modern processed meat; this country is characterized also by the presence of their traditional processed meat as: quaddid (obtained by salting and sun-drying of meat) and khlii (obtained from salted-dried meat, which is cooked and conditioned in fat). In contrast, no studies have been conducted previously to evaluate the association between processed meat and CRC risk. Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the association between processed meat intake and CRC risk in Morocco. Methods: A case-control study was conducted in 5 major public health hospitals in Morocco. Each case was matched with a control by age (±5 years), sex and center. Dietary data were collected by a validated Food Frequency Questionnaire including traditional processed meat (quaddid and khlii) and modern processed meat (delicatessen meat). Conditional logistic regression was done to predict the association between processed meat consumption and CRC risk. Results: Among 500 cases and 500 controls matched by age; sex and center, 50.9% were male and 49.1% were female. The mean age was 55.53 ± 14.53 years. Among the cases, 44.5% was diagnosed with colon cancer, and 55.5% with rectum cancer. Most participants live in the urban area; never attend school and are poor. The bivariate analysis was used to evaluate the association between processed meat intake and CRC. We found no statistical significant between the occurrence of CRC and consumption of traditional processed meat (OR = 1.04; 95% CI, 0.74-1.48; P = 0.43). While, this study found strong significant association between modern processed meat and CRC risk (OR = 9.23; 95% CI, 3.91-21.77; P = 0.00). Conclusion: This study support that high consumption of modern processed meat such delicatessen meat increased the risk of CRC. In contrast, this study did not provide evidence that traditional processed meat is related to CRC risk in Morocco. We could explain this association by the low consumption of traditional processed meat in this study sample. In addition, the increases in the urbanization could also reduce the consumption of these types of traditional processed meat. Further studies are needed to evaluate the association between meat consumption and CRC risk in the context Moroccan.