Association of fast food intake and high-grade brain tumors: Primary evidence among a subset of Iranian patients

Human brain tumors are the leading cause of cancer induced death owing to the late diagnosis in higher grades and failure to be successfully controlled. Determining the main risk factors toward higher grades of the tumor can dramatically decrease the mortality rate of benign brain tumor patients. The present study was conducted to compare the dietary habits between benign and malignant brain tumor patients. Three demographic, physical activity and dietary regimen’s specific questionnaires were filled for 50 high grade glioma and 50 meningioma patients. Obtained data were analyzed using SPSS 22.0 (SPSS Inc, IL, USA). A p-value less than 0.05 was considered as significant. There was a significant association between using of fast foods and high-grade glioma tumors (p-value=0.007). In contrast, the frequency of using dairy products, sea foods, fruits, and vegetables besides physical activity was not meaningfully different between two malignant and benign patient groups. Finding of this study regarding the association of fast foods with malignant brain tumors is further support on the role of Trans and saturated fatty acids in the rate of cancer evolution. However, further investigations are required to determine whether disruption in blood brain barrier induced by frequent consumption of saturated fatty acids enriched food occurs before or after malignant cellular transformation.