Red wine was once heralded as a boon for health that could protect the heart and even extend life expectancy. But while scientists have debunked this claim, they believe that at least one red wine ingredient – a compound called resveratrol – may hold genuine health benefits.
A trial launched this week will assess whether a low dose of the chemical, also found in red grapes, blueberries and peanuts, could help keep bowel cancer at bay. The study, one of the largest to date testing drugs for cancer prevention, will recruit patients who are at risk of the disease.
“With the Colo-Prevent trial, we are embarking on a unique experiment to see how drugs could stop bowel polyps from growing,” said Prof Karen Brown, a cancer researcher at the University of Leicester and the trial’s lead investigator. “This trial could have big implications for how we prevent bowel cancer in people who are most likely to develop the disease as they get older.”
The trial builds on more than a decade of work by Brown’s lab, which previously found that purified resveratrol can slow tumour growth in mice and can reach the bowel undigested.
The trial is recruiting people aged between 50 and 73 who have taken part in the NHS bowel screening programme and been found to have bowel polyps, small growths that are usually not serious but can develop into cancer if left untreated. Patients will have their polyps removed and will be given either aspirin by itself or a combination of aspirin and metformin (a diabetes drug) daily for three years, for the main trial.
Others will take purified resveratrol or a placebo for one year as part of a sub-study. Drinking red wine does not prevent cancer and alcohol is a known cause of cancer.
All patients will then be given a colonoscopy to determine if the polyps have started growing again. If the trial is successful, any of the treatments tested could be offered to people eligible for the NHS bowel screening programme to reduce the risk of bowel polyps forming, and with that reduce the risk of bowel cancer in the future.
David Trusler, 66, from Market Harborough in Leicestershire is one of the first patients to take part in the Colo-Prevent trial and said he was participating for his father, who died with bowel cancer when Trusler was a teenager.
Trusler was successfully treated for prostate cancer 11 years ago and has since been taking part in the bowel cancer monitoring programme. In June, he had an abnormal result.
“My first thought was ‘Oh no, not again,’” he said. “I was really nervous about what they might find.”
Doctors did not find cancer but discovered two polyps, which could become cancer in the future. “I’m taking part in this trial for my dad, to give future generations the kind of treatments he never had,” said Trusler.
Brown said there were effective ways to reduce bowel cancer by changes to lifestyle, including stopping smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, reducing alcohol consumption and reducing red and processed meat consumption. She added: “Screening has made huge progress in picking up bowel cancers in those most at risk. But to improve outcomes further, we need to prevent more bowel cancers emerging in the first place.”
Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK, with an estimated 44,000 people each year receiving the diagnosis, and it is the second most common cause of cancer death.
Dr Iain Foulkes, the executive director of research and innovation at Cancer Research UK, said: “This trial opens the door to a new era of cancer research, where cancer becomes much more preventable through cutting-edge science. The insights gained from the trial will change how we think about cancer prevention and give more people the chance of longer, better lives, free from the fear of cancer.”
