Dietary fibre and regional large-bowel cancer mortality in Britain

The relationship between food intake and cancer of the large bowel was assessed by calculating the average intakes of foods, nutrients and dietary fibre in the different regions of Great Britain and relating these to the regional pattern of death from colon and rectal cancers between 1969 and 1973. No significant associations were found with the consumption of fat, animal protein or beer, nor with current estimates of total dietary fibre intake. Average intakes of the pentose fraction of total dietary fibres, and of vegetables other than potatoes, were negatively correlated with the truncated age- and sex-standardized death rates from colon cancer (r = -0.960 and -0.940). Specific components of dietary fibre may therefore inhibit colon carcinogenesis.