Polyphenols to crack colon cancer
accounting for approximately 75,000 deaths each year. Can fruit and
vegetables really cut the risk of disease? New study suggests
phenolic compounds, or polyphenols, can really fight the disease.
Colon cancer is a major cause of premature death in Europe, accounting for approximately 75,000 deaths each year. Could the answer lie in a glass of red wine? A European-funded project claims to have made considerable headway in understanding the uptake and metabolism of a range of phenolic compounds, or polyphenols in fighting this disease.
A major part of the Polybind project was to test the implications of in vitro findings about the potentially carcinogenic effects of polyphenols in animal and human models. The researchers at the UK Institute of Food Research, chose two models to investigate - the effects of black tea on the metabolism of cooked meat mutagens implicated in colorectal cancer development in humans, and the effects of a complex wine polyphenol mixture on pre-cancerous lesions and tumours of the rat colon.
In the first model, the researchers were unable to confirm earlier findings that black tea exerts a statistically significant blocking effect against colorectal cancer development in humans. But the scientists stressed that the study only investigated short term consumption of tea, adding that longer term intake of black tea needs to be investigated further.
In the second model, the researchers concluded that complex polyphenols from red wine have a protective suppressing effect against colon carcinogenesis when the exposure to intestinal carcinogens induces a moderate response in terms of tumours developing, but not however where a large number of tumours is induced by chemicals.
The scientists concluded that an increased intake of polyphenols, through consumption of fruits and vegetables rich in these compounds, or use of supplements, could be effective in preventing, although not treating, intestinal cancer.
