A five year epidemiology study by the United States National Cancer Institute confirms previous study conclusions that there is no link between aspartame consumption and leukemias, lymphomas and brain tumours. The study, presented at the American Association of Cancer Research meeting in Washington, D.C. on the 4 April, 2006 evaluated over 500,000 men and women between the ages of 50 and 69 over a five-year period. The researchers found that there was no evidence of an increased risk of leukemias, lymphomas and brain tumours among people who use aspartame. The researchers report, "Our findings from this epidemiologic study suggest that consumption of aspartame-containing beverages does not raise the risk of hematopoietic or brain malignancies."

The study confirms the findings of a recent 2005 report, Review of Lymphatic and Hematopoietic Cancer Incidence Trends & Consumption of Aspartame, in which researchers concluded, upon examining cancer trends from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program that there is no consistent pattern (of leukemias or lymphomas) that parallels the rise in aspartame consumption. Further, the findings also support those of three recent animal studies conducted by the National Toxicology Program (NTP) designed to evaluate whether aspartame is capable of causing cancer. These U.S. government funded and managed studies were conducted using Good Laboratory Practices (GLP). The results of these cancer studies, in which aspartame was fed to mice bred to be especially sensitive to cancer-causing agents, unequivocally indicated that "there was no evidence of carcinogenic activity of aspartame."

April 2006