Can a chemical found in red grapes prevent bowel cancer? UK scientists want to find out

The chemical, known as resveratrol, is also found in red wine – but you can skip toasting to your health, given alcohol has been shown to increase cancer risks.

Instead, researchers are trialling whether a purified form of resveratrol, taken through supplements, could help prevent bowel cancer after early-stage studies showed promise.

Bowel cancer starts in either the colon or rectum and is also called colorectal cancer.

In 2022, there were nearly 362,000 new cases in Europe, making up 13 per cent of all newly diagnosed cancers. It is also the second-leading cause of cancer deaths, with more than 161,000 deaths that year.

The University of Leicester and the UK’s National Institute for Health and Social Care Research (NIHR) launched the trial this week. It will recruit 1,300 patients from across England and Wales who had polyps – small cysts that could become cancerous – found during screenings for bowel cancer.

After having their polyps removed, the participants will get one of four treatments: aspirin, aspirin and metformin, purified resveratrol, or a placebo or dummy medicine.

Researchers hope to learn whether over-the-counter medicines – like aspirin and metformin, which is used to treat high blood pressure – or food supplements such as resveratrol might reduce bowel cancer risks, according to Cancer Research UK, which is helping to fund the study.

“When bowel polyps are identified, removing them does not guarantee that they won’t come back, or become cancer in the future,” Mark Hull, one of the study leads and a professor of molecular gastroenterology at the University of Leeds, said in a statement.

“Through therapeutic prevention, we’re trying everything that we can to reduce the risk of cancer, and the … trial is just one way in which we are doing that,” he added.

The study builds on previous research led by Karen Brown, director of the Leicester Cancer Research Centre, that found even low doses of purified resveratrol can slow the growth of cancer cells in mice and human tissue samples.

Brown said that in addition to lifestyle changes that can reduce cancer risks – like quitting smoking, limiting alcohol consumption, eating well, and staying at a healthy weight – interventions like resveratrol may help to stop bowel cancer in its earliest stages.

The new trial is one of the UK’s biggest so far into cancer prevention through therapeutics, according to Iain Foulkes, Cancer Research UK’s executive director of research and innovation.

It will be a few years before scientists have answers, but if any of the treatments work, they could be offered to all patients eligible for bowel cancer screening, to reduce the risk that they will develop polyps and potentially cancer later on.

“This trial opens the door to a new era of cancer research, where cancer becomes much more preventable through cutting-edge science,” Foulkes said.