Fruit 'little help' in breast cancer fight

Eating fruit and vegetables may help to fight heart disease and cancer in general, but appears to provide no protection against breast cancer.

A report from the Harvard School of Public Health in the United States says other types of intervention are needed to reduce the risk of breast cancer, the causes of which are more likely to be hormonal.

Researchers said they reviewed multiyear studies involving more than 350,000 women in the United States, Canada, Sweden and the Netherlands.

"Breast cancer risk was only 3 per cent to 9 per cent lower in women with the highest ... fruit or vegetable consumption compared with the lowest."

Nor were the researchers able to "identify any fruit and vegetable subgroups or specific fruits or vegetables that had stronger and statistically significant associations with breast cancer risk."

The report was published in theJournal of the American Medical Association, with an editorial by Martha Slattery, of the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City.

She wrote that several recent studies appeared to challenge the National Cancer Institute's recommendation that men and women consume five servings of fruit or vegetables daily.

"Until we know for sure, one can ask: 'Is the five-a-day programme harmful?' The answer is probably not."

- REUTERS