Aspartame and cancer risk
Aspartame and cancer risk in rodents:
- aspartame is one of the world's most widely used artificial sweeteners and is an ingredient in more than 5000 food products globally. A particularly important use is in low-calorie beverages consumed by children and pregnant women
- the Ramazzini Institute (RI) reported in 2006 and 2007 that aspartame causes dose-related increases in malignant tumors in multiple organs in rats and mice (1)
- increased cancer risk was seen even at low exposure levels approaching the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI). Prenatal exposures caused increased malignancies in rodent offspring at lower doses than in adults
- a study found (1)
- that prenatal exposure to aspartame increases incidence of leukemia and lymphoma in offspring in rodents
Aspartame and cancer risk in humans
- in a large cohort study, artificial sweeteners (especially aspartame and acesulfame-K), which are used in many food and beverage brands worldwide, were associated with increased cancer risk, more specifically breast and obesity-related cancers (2)
- the web-based NutriNet-Sante cohort - reported cancer incidence for more than 102,000 French adults who completed, multiple times during the study, 24-hour dietary records that included the names and brands of all commercial food products they consumed
- detailed dietary records allowed the researchers to estimate the total intake of all artificial sweeteners combined
- reported that adults who consumed higher amounts of aspartame were slightly more likely to develop cancer overall (1.15 times the risk), breast cancer (1.22 times the risk), and obesity-related cancers (1.15 times the risk) than those who did not consume aspartame
- in June, 2023, a Working Group of 25 scientists from 12 countries met at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France, to finalise their evaluation of the carcinogenicity of aspartame, methyleugenol, and isoeugenol (3)
- aspartame was classified as "possibly carcinogenic to humans" (Group 2B) based on "limited" evidence for cancer in humans. There was also "limited" evidence for cancer in experimental animals and "limited" mechanistic evidence
Reference:
- Landrigan PJ, Straif K. Aspartame and cancer - new evidence for causation. Environ Health. 2021 Apr 12;20(1):42. doi: 10.1186/s12940-021-00725-y. PMID: 33845854; PMCID: PMC8042911.
- Debras C et al. Artificial sweeteners and cancer risk: Results from the NutriNet-Sante population-based cohort study. PLoS Med. 2022 Mar 24;19(3):e1003950
- Riboli E et al. Carcinogenicity of aspartame, methyleugenol, and isoeugenol. Lancet Oncology July 13th 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(23)00341-8