PhIP is a heterocyclic aromatic amine (HAA) from cooked meat. It belongs to pyridine heterocyclic amine and is a 2B carcinogen with estrogen activity. PhIP forms adducts with DNA that promote cancer.

PhIP exerts extensive impacts through the activation of estrogen receptor alpha (ERα), leading to significant and overlapping alterations in miRNA expression. This deregulation of miRNA by PhIP may serve as a critical non-DNA-damaging carcinogenic pathway in breast cancer.

PhIP forms DNA adducts in the prostate, PhIP also induces oxidative stress, atrophy of the acini, and inflammation of the prostate of rodents. PhIP causes inflammation, epithelial cell damage, and prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia in the dorsolateral prostate lobe compared to the ventral lobe in hCYP1A-mice.[1]