Vegetarians have a lower risk of developing a cancer when compared to meat-eater. This was confimed in a study done over 60,000.
Dr Naomi Allen, an epidemiologist at Oxford University lead the study with colleagues from the UK and New Zealand. The research is published in the 16 June advance access issue of the British Journal of Cancer.
“This is strong evidence that vegetarians have lower rates of cancer than meat eaters,” said Allen to the press.
Data from British arm of the European Perspective Investment into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) were used for the study.  The research says that fish eaters were 18 percent less likely to have a cancer when compared to just 12 per cent of vegetarians. This suggests that out of every 100 people, 33 will get cancer at some point in their life.
Lead author Professor Tim Key told the media, “At the moment these findings are not strong enough to ask for particularly large changes in the diets of people following an average balanced diet.”
The risk is lower in a few cancer like leukaemia, stomach and bladder cancers in vegetarians. In other cancers the risk is the same even for vegetarians. These are multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow. 
The highest cases were reported in cervical cancer for vegetarians and fish-eaters.
Sara Hiom, director of health information at Cancer Research UK, said,”These interesting results add to the evidence that what we eat affects our chances of developing cancer. The links between diet and cancer risk are complex and more research is needed to see how big a part diet plays and which specific dietary factors are most important.” She added, ”A healthy, balanced diet high in fibre, fruit and vegetables and low in saturated fat, salt and red and processed meat.”
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