Aspartame is a commonly used and extensively studied low-calorie sweetener and has been repeatedly confirmed as safe by bodies like EFSA, WHO etc. With respect to cancer controversies, that continues to focus on animal model studies, the current review conducted a comprehensive and systematic assessment of human, experimental animal, and mechanistic data to evaluate the relationship between exposure to aspartame and cancer.
The approach to conduct the review was based on the general principals and procedures described by the WHO international agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Preamble for conducting cancer hazard evaluations in which all available evidence is evaluated, including epidemiological, experimental animal, and mechanistic data. The current review provided an assessment of potential carcinogenicity of aspartame by critically evaluating more than 40 human observational studies, 12 experimental animal cancer studies, and more than 1360 assay endpoints to evaluate mechanistic activity.
The evidence collectively demonstrated lack of carcinogenic effect. An assessment of > 1360 mechanistic endpoints, including guideline based genotoxicity studies, demonstrated a lack of activity associated with end points grouped to key characteristics of carcinogens. The review also reported that other non specific mechanistic data (e.g oxidative stress across tissue, models, and species) do not provide any plausible mechanism of carcinogenesis associated with aspartame.
Lastly, the current evidence supports that aspartame consumption is non-carcinogenic in humans and the inconsistent findings of animal studies conducted at the Ramazzini Institute (RI), may be explained by flaws in study design and conduct, as acknowledged by authoritative bodies.
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