Meat 'ups prostate cancer risk'

Meat diet raises levels of a hormone called Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1) which promotes cell growth.

A University of Oxford team examined the results of 12 studies, featuring a total of nearly 9,000 men.

They found men with high blood levels of IGF-1 were up to 40% more likely to develop prostate cancer than those with low levels.

The study appears in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

IGF-1 plays a key role in the growth and development of children and adolescents.

In adults it continues to regulate cell growth and death, but it can also inhibit the death of cells which have come to the end of their natural life cycle