Cooking meat at high temperatures or until it is well done could increase the risk of bladder cancer, say experts.

The warning to barbecue lovers adds weight to other research that suggested charred meat could cause other cancers, including pancreatic cancer.

In the latest study, scientists found that people who eat meat regularly, especially meat that is well done or cooked at high temperatures, may have a higher chance of developing bladder cancer. Those with certain genetic traits also appear to be more at risk, according to the 12-year study of 884 people with bladder cancer and 878 without.

Experts have shown that cooking meat at high temperatures creates chemicals that are not originally present in uncooked meat. These heterocyclic amines (HCAs) are carcinogenic. HCAs develop when amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) and creatine (a chemical found in muscles) react at high cooking temperatures.

The latest study was led by Jie Lin, an assistant professor at the University of Texas, and was presented at the American Association for Cancer Research's annual meeting in Washington. The team looked at the association between meat intake, HCAs and bladder cancer.

The National Cancer Institute's food frequency questionnaire was used to assess dietary intake of different meat and the results were split into four groups, from the lowest to the highest meat intake.

Compared with those in the lowest group of red meat intake, people in the top group – those people who consumed the most red meat – were 48% more likely to suffer bladder cancer than those with the lowest intake.

"Higher intakes of beef steaks, pork chops and bacon were associated with increased bladder cancer risk in a dose-response pattern," the researchers said.

The researchers added that people who ate a lot of fried chicken and fried fish were also at "significantly increased risk".

Red meat that was either medium or well done was linked with a 46% and 94% increased risk of cancer respectively compared with that which was cooked long enough to still be rare.

The researchers analysed each person's DNA to look for genetic variants in how the body responds to HCAs. They found that people with seven or more unfavourable genotypes who had the highest red meat intake were almost five times more likely to suffer bladder cancer as those without.

Professor Xifeng Wu, who worked on the study, said: "The results support what we suspected: people who eat a lot of red meat, particularly well done, seem to have a higher likelihood of bladder cancer."