Is It True That Obesity And Spicy Foods Are The Triggers For Empedu Cancer?

Illustration of obesity triggers bile cancer (Freepik)

JAKARTA - Bile cancer is a rare type of cancer, but it is aggressive and often late to detect. Some of the main risk factors that are known to increase the chances of someone developing bile cancer include bile, chronic infection in bile channels, congenital abnormalities such as colledocus cysts, and chronic inflammation due to poor diet.

In addition, unhealthy lifestyles such as overweight (obesity), diabetes, and food consumption that contain carcinogenic substances also have a significant contribution to the onset of this disease.

Oncology Hematology Specialist Prof. DR. dr. Ikhwan Rinaldi, SpPD-KHOM, M.Epid, M.Pd.Ked, FACP, FINASIM revealed that obesity and metabolic diseases such as diabetes can increase the risk of someone having bile cancer.

"We don't specifically mention the type of food, but there are factors of obesity and diabetes that need to be considered. Generally, cancer is closely related to the consumption of foods that contain carcinogenic substances," explained Ikhwan in a media meeting session in Jakarta, as quoted by ANTARA.

Carcinogenic substances are compounds that can trigger abnormal cell growth and trigger cancer. One example of food that has the potential to contain this substance is red meat, especially if consumed in large quantities and regularly.

Excessive red meat consumption not only risks increasing weight, but can also lead to diabetes mellitus of two conditions that are both related to increasing the risk of bile cancer. Professor Ikhwan emphasized that this relationship has become a concern in various health studies.

He also highlighted the increasing trend of consumption of spicy food among the community, especially women. Although until now there is no scientific evidence that directly links spicy food to bile cancer, vigilance still needs to be maintained.

There has been no study confirming the direct relationship between spicy food and bile cancer. But we have to be careful, because the spicy foods sold are sometimes mixed with additional ingredients that strengthen the spicy taste but are not necessarily safe," he said.

Consumption of excessive spicy food can also hurt the stomach, and these wounds can develop into chronic inflammation. In the long term, this condition has the potential to turn into cancer.

On that occasion, Prof. Ikhwan explained that bile cancer is a very aggressive group of tumors. The main challenge in handling it is a late diagnosis, so that many patients are already in advanced stages when detected, making surgery impossible.

He said that 60 to 70 percent of bile cancer cases were diagnosed in advanced conditions or had experienced a metastasis, so the chance for surgery was very small.

Globally, the incidence rate of bile biological cancer is around 2.2 per 100,000 men and 2.4 per 100,000 women. As for bile duct cancer (collangiocarsinoma), the figure is even lower than 2 cases per 100,000 population.

"The life expectancy of bile cancer patients in the last five years is still low, only between 5 and 15 percent," he concluded.