Black raspberry may prevent colon cancer

CHICAGO, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago suggest black raspberries may help prevent colon cancer.

Senior author Dr. Wancai Yang says black raspberries were highly effective in preventing colorectal tumors in two mouse models of the disease.

The study, published in Cancer Prevention Research, found black raspberries added to the diet of mice prone to colon tumors reduced tumor incidence by 45 percent and the number of tumors by 60 percent. The researchers also found black raspberries reduced both tumor incidence and the number of tumors by 50 percent in mice genetically prone to colitis -- an inflammatory disease that can lead to cancer.

"We saw the black raspberry as a natural product, very powerful and easy to access," Yang says in a statement.

Yang and colleagues used a strain of mice, Apc1638, that lacks a specific gene that causes the mice to develop intestinal tumors as well as another strain, Muc2, that causes colitis.

Both mouse strains were randomized to be fed either a Western-style, high-risk diet -- high in fat and low in calcium and vitamin D -- or the same diet supplemented with 10 percent freeze-dried black raspberry powder for 12 weeks.