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Europe-Wide Study Finds Fibre Can Cut Colorectal Cancer Risk By Up To 40%
Lancet
05/01/2003
By Harvey McConnell
People consuming an average of 35 g fibre a day can cut their risk of colorectal cancer up to 40%, compared to people who consume an average of 15 g per day, according to the latest investigations in Europe and the United States.
The protection from fibre intake was strongest for left-sided colon cancer, and not significant for rectal cancer, show the results of a the study by Dr Sheila Bingham and Dr Nick Day from the British Medical Research Council Dunn Human Nutrition Unit, University of Cambridge, Dr Elio Riboli the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France, and colleagues from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer (EPIC).
The clinicians prospectively examined the association between dietary fibre intake and incidence of colorectal cancer in 519,978 men and women between the ages of 25 and 70 taking part in the EPIC study in Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden.
Relative risk estimates were obtained from fibre intake, categorised by sex-specific, cohort-wide quintiles, and from linear models relating the hazard ratio to fibre intake expressed as a continuous variable.
Follow-up at an average of 4.5 years obtained data for 1,065 reported cases of colorectal cancer. Dietary fibre in foods was inversely related to incidence of large bowel cancer (adjusted relative risk 0.75] for the highest versus lowest quintile of intake.
Protection was greatest for the left side of the colon, and least for the rectum. After calibration with more detailed dietary data, the adjusted relative risk for the highest versus lowest quintile of fibre from food intake was 0.58 . No food source of fibre was significantly more protective than others.
"Our results showed that total dietary fibre consumption was inversely associated with colorectal cancer risk," the investigators said. "However, we only studied fibre in foods."
They add that foods supplying fibre also contribute many other nutrients and phytochemicals that have been linked to cancer protection, and which could account for the protective effects seen. "Thus, our results cannot be extrapolated to any potential benefit of dietary supplements or additives containing fibre alone."
The potential for protection by fibre from foods in populations with current low intakes might be even greater than their findings, the researchers conclude.
Similar results have been found in a large American study.
Lancet 2003;361:1496-501.
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