Kimchi and Cancer 김치

What do we know about kimchi and cancer?

Cancer cachexia is a syndrome accompanying weight loss, skeletal muscle atrophy, and loss of adipose tissue in patients with advanced cancer. Since interleukin-6 (IL-6) is one of core mediators causing cancer cachexia and kimchi can modulate IL-6 response, we hypothesized dietary intake of kimchi can ameliorate cancer cachexia. In this study, we studied preemptive administration of kimchi can ameliorate mouse colon carcinoma cells colon (C26) adenocarcinoma-induced cancer cachexia and explored anti-cachexic mechanisms of kimchi focused on the changes of muscle atrophy, cachexic inflammation, and catabolic catastrophe. As results, dietary intake of kimchi significantly attenuated the development of cancer cachexia, presented with lesser weight loss, higher muscle preservation as well as higher survival from cancer cachexia in mice. Starting from significant inhibition of IL-6 and its signaling, kimchi afforded significant inhibition of muscle specific ubiquitin-proteasome system including inhibition of atrogin-1 and muscle ring finger protein-1 (MuRF-1) with other muscle related genes including mitofusin-2 (Mfn-2) and PGC-1α. Significant inhibition of lipolysis gene such as adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL) and hormone-sensitive ligase (HSL) accompanied with significant induction of fatty acid synthase (FAS) and sterol response element binding protein 1 (SREBP1) was achieved with kimchi. As gene regulation, IL-6 and their receptor as well as Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) were significantly attenuated with kimchi. In conclusion, dietary intake of cancer preventive kimchi can be an anticipating option to ameliorate cancer cachexia via suppressive action of IL-6 accompanied with decreased muscle atrophy and lipolysis.

An JM, Kang EA, Han YM, Oh JY, Lee DY, Choi SH, Kim DH, Hahm KB. Dietary intake of probiotic kimchi ameliorated IL-6-driven cancer cachexia. J Clin Biochem Nutr. 2019 Sep;65(2):109-117. doi: 10.3164/jcbn.19-10. Epub 2019 Jul 27. PMID: 31592205; PMCID: PMC6769406.

Identification of major dietary patterns in Korean adults and their association with cancer risk in the Cancer Screening Examination Cohort.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES:
Cancer is the primary cause of disease-related death in Korea. The purposes of this study were to confirm the major dietary patterns and to evaluate whether there were associations between these identified dietary patterns and the risk of cancer based on data from the Cancer Screening Examination Cohort (CSEC) 2004-2008 of the National Cancer Center (NCC) of Korea.
SUBJECTS/METHODS:
This study included 8 024 subjects who completed a written survey on demographics and lifestyles, as well as a 3-day dietary record. Dietary patterns were identified by factor analysis using the principal component analysis method. The associations between the identified dietary patterns and cancer risk were examined using Cox proportional hazards regression models.
RESULTS:
During a median follow-up period of 9.0 years, 425 cancer cases were newly diagnosed. We identified 4 major dietary patterns (‘rice and kimchi’, ‘vegetables and fish’, ‘fruits and dairy’, and ‘meats and sweets’). There was a negative relation between ‘rice and kimchi’ pattern and the risk of non-gastrointestinal cancers only (highest vs. lowest tertile; multivariate-adjusted hazard ratio=0.60, 95% confidence interval=0.41, 0.88). The ‘fruits and dairy’ pattern tended to decrease the risk of cancer, and the preventive effect was noted only for gastrointestinal cancer risk. However, there was no association after adjusting for covariates.

CONCLUSIONS:
The traditional dietary pattern with high consumption of rice, kimchi, soybean paste and vegetables may decrease the cancer risk among Koreans, and strategies based on the dietary pattern may effectively reduce the cancer risk.European Journal of Clinical Nutrition advance online publication, 1 March 2017; doi:10.1038/ejcn.2017.6.

Wie GA, Cho YA, Kang HH, Ryu KA, Yoo MK, Kim J, Shin S, Chun OK, Joung H.
Identification of major dietary patterns in Korean adults and their association
with cancer risk in the Cancer Screening Examination Cohort. Eur J Clin Nutr.
2017 Mar 1. doi: 10.1038/ejcn.2017.6. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID:
28247859.

Kimchi is a fermented food product. Because of the way that it is made, kimchi contains a high level of nitrites. Nitrites are known to be a cause of cancer.

A study by the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii and the University of Southern California suggests a link between eating processed meats and cancer risk. The study followed 190,000 people, ages 45-75, for seven years and found that people who ate the most processed meats had a 67% higher risk of pancreatic cancer than those who ate the least amount.

Processed meats are manufactured using sodium nitrite. During the process of cooking certain meats, sodium nitrites combine with naturally present amines in the meat to form carcinogenic N-nitroso compounds. When ingested, these compounds are associated with cancer, according to the study.