Some of the components in beer appear to protect against development of colon cancer, report Japanese researchers, revealing new results from a study on rats.They say that drinking beer may contribute to a reduction in the risk of cancer susceptibility in humans too. The team from Japan’s Kirin Brewery carried out a 42-week experiment on 344 male Fischer rats with chemically induced colon cancer. Intake of beer decreased tumour incidence by 22 per cent and decreased the number of neoplastic lesions, including adenocarcinomas and adenomas (benign and malignant tumours), by 44 per cent, they report in the International Journal of Cancer (vol 108, issue 3, pp404 – 411).
