Ingredient in weight-loss supplement may increase risk of urothelial cancer.

The Los Angeles Times (4/10, Kaplan) "Booster Shots" blog reports, "A study published online Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that people who thought they were taking a harmless weight-loss supplement wound up with a type of bladder cancer as a result." Investigators "compared 151 patients with the urothelial cancers to a 'control' group of 25 patients with a type of kidney cancer called renal cell carcinoma." The researchers "found that aristolochic acid prompted a specific type of mutation on a tumor suppressor gene known as TP53 – a mutation that leads to urothelial cancer."