Lab workers dispel cancer prevention qualities of fruit

The link between increased fruit consumption and the prevention of cancer is weaker than previously believed, laboratory researchers have claimed.

Paolo Boffetta of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and his colleagues explored the commonly-held belief that high fruit and vegetable intake reduces the overall risk of contracting the disease.

According to the scientists, there is a small inverse relationship between the two, with "modest" benefits experienced in the study of nearly 500,000 people.

People who drank a lot of alcohol or smoked were found to have a "somewhat" reduced risk, although only in cancers caused by these activities.

Commenting on the experiment, Walter Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health said it "strongly confirms" previous work that highlights fruits negligible effect on preventing the disease.

Experts at the National Cancer Institute in Rockville, Maryland recently noted sunlight may lower the risk of people suffering kidney cancer, with men who are employed outdoors less likely to get the illness.