Health: Fibre blocks bowel cancer gene

Scientists at the Cancer Research Campaign have shed more light on how fibre may help prevent bowel cancer, it was revealed yesterday.

Experts have believed for some time that fibre helps prevent cancer by speeding up the transit of natural waste products through the body. This new research, carried out with colleagues in America, demonstrates at cell level how a naturally-produced substance derived from fibre can block the activity of a cancer causing gene. This, they believe, has significant implications in the prevention and treatment of the disease, the second biggest killer cancer which currently claims the lives of 18,000 people in the UK each year and hundreds of thousands world wide.

Teams from Bristol University and the Burhan Institute in California have found that a substance called butyrate, produced when fibre is broken down, can halt the activity of a gene that causes bowel tumours to develop.