Colon Cancer: Dried Plums May Reduce Risk

Eating dried plums may lower your risk of colon cancer, according to findings presented at the 2015 Experimental Biology conference in Boston.

Researchers at Texas A&M University and the University of North Carolina found that a diet containing dried plums can positively affect microbiota, otherwise known as gut bacteria, via the colon.

As colon cancer remains the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States when men and women are considered separately, according to the American Cancer, it is also the second-leading cause when the figures are combined. And during 2015, estimates show that  colon cancer is expected to cause close to 49,700 deaths nationwide.

"Through our research, we were able to show that dried plums promote retention of beneficial bacteria throughout the colon, and by doing so they may reduce the risk of colon cancer," researcher Dr. Nancy Turner, Texas A&M AgriLife Research professor in the nutrition and food science department, said in a statement.

In this recent study, researchers explored the potential cancer-protective properties of dried plums by using a well-established rat model of colon cancer.

One group of rats in the study were fed a diet containing dried plums while the others were fed a certain diet, with both diets matching for total calories and macronutrient composition so that the effect due to diet would be attributed to compounds found uniquely in plums.

Researchers examined the intestinal contents and tissues from different segments of the colon and found that a dried plum diet increased Bacteroidetes and reduced Firmicutes -- the two major phyla of bacteria in the gut -- in the distal colon without affecting the proportions found in the proximal colon. However, they also discovered that animals consuming the control diet showed a lower proportion of
Bacteroidetes and increased Firmicutes in the distal colon. The rats that consumed the dried plums in the study also showed significantly reduced numbers of aberrant crypts, aberrant crypt focci and high-multiplicity aberrant crypt foci compared to control rats, the study says. 

"These aberrant crypt foci are one of the earliest observable precancerous lesions and are often considered to be a strong indicator for cancer development," researcher Derek Seidel said in a statement.

Turner added that the data supports the hypothesis that dried plums protect against colon cancer, which may be due in part to their ability "to establish seemingly beneficial colon microbiota compositions in the distal colon."

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