In a new study, researchers found that people who ate well-done meat were twice as likely to develop bladder cancer than those who preferred it rare. Based on over 1,700 people, the findings were presented at a US cancer research conference. The risk was highest for those who ate well-done red meat like steaks, pork chops and bacon, the University of Texas team found, but even fried chicken and fish upped the risk. Three major types of cancer-causing chemicals, called heterocyclic amines, raised the risk by more than two and a half. In the 12-year study, researchers looked at how people metabolized meat, and found that having certain genes made people almost five times as likely to develop bladder cancer if they ate a lot of red meat. “These results strongly support what we suspected – people who eat a lot of red meat, particularly well-done red meat, such as fried or barbecued, seem to have a higher likelihood of bladder cancer,” lead researcher Xifeng Wu told the American Association for Cancer Research.