Diet's role in colon cancer in doubt

Is What We Eat A Factor In Our Risk For Colon Cancer Or Not?
 

A diet high in fruits, vegetables and fiber, which is widely believed to reduce the risk of colon cancer, failed to prevent the recurrence of potentially cancerous polyps in two experiments. The studies reported in the New England Journal of Medicine confounded expectations raised by earlier studies showing that dietary fiber decreased polyps, thus seemingly reducing the risk of colon cancer.

In both colon cancer studies, researchers tracked people who already suffered from colorectal polyps, or adenomas, and had them surgically removed before starting the diets.

One team divided 1,905 people over age 35 randomly into two groups. One group ate a diet averaging about six servings of fruits and vegetables daily; it was high in fiber and low in red meat and fat, a diet formula thought to reduce the risk of colon cancer.  The other group stayed on regular diets. After four years, the two groups suffered recurring polyps at equal rates, just under 40%.

In a separate study of the effect of diet on the occurence of colon cancer, 719 people ages 40 to 80 were placed into a high-fiber group and 584 into a low-fiber group. Again, differences in recurrence of polyps were not significant.

The results indicated that such diets might offer health advantages, but preventing colorectal adenomas, at least for the first three to four years, may not be one of them. The studies' authors noted that the results say nothing definitive about diet's effects on long-term development of colon cancer.

Colon cancer kills 56,300 Americans a year. But with regular testing of patients after age 50, physicians can remove polyps 10 years before they can turn into colon cancer.

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