Fibre 'can raise risk of bowel cancer'

Doctors and scientists were urgently trying to shore up the place of fibre as a central pillar of a healthy diet yesterday after research findings threatened to send it tumbling.

Doctors and scientists were urgently trying to shore up the place of fibre as a central pillar of a healthy diet yesterday after research findings threatened to send it tumbling.

A European study, published in The Lancet, found that fibre supplements given to patients at high risk of bowel cancer actually increased their chances of getting the disease.

The results follow a series of studies in America and Australia that have cast doubt on the protective effect of fibre against bowel cancer in high-risk patients.

In the new study, by the European Cancer Prevention Organisation, daily supplements of soluble fibre were given to patients who had had polyps - benign growths which can lead to cancer - removed from their colons. After two years, among the 552 patients in the study, those given the fibre supplements had a "significant increase in the recurrence rate", of 29.3 per cent, compared with 20.3 per cent for the group given a placebo.

But British specialists said people should not stop eating vegetables, fruits and cereals.