LONDON, Dec 19: High doses of folic acid may help prevent stomach cancer, Chinese scientists who tested the dietary regime on dogs reported on Thursday.

Folic acid — a vitamin found in green leafy vegetables and legumes — is already known to help prevent the congenital spinal defect spina bifida during pregnancy and has long been tipped as a potential cancer fighter.

The research by Dr Shu-Dong Xiao of the Shanghai Institute of Digestive Disease, published in the medical journal Gut, provides the latest evidence that the nutrient contains chemicals vital to health.

His team gave a cancer-inducing chemical to 16 beagles and then treated half the animals with 20 mg of folic acid. After 15 months, all eight dogs given the cancer chemical alone had developed stomach cancer while only three of the animals on folic acid did so.

“Our results indicate that high dose folic acid plays an important role in the chemoprevention of gastric carcinogenesis (cancer development)...in beagles,” the researchers said.

More research was needed to determine whether the results are applicable to human stomach cancers, which are among the most difficult cancers to treat.

But the Chinese scientists said they believe folic acid supplements could play a key role in prevention.

Folic acid is essential for normal DNA growth and repair. Lack of the nutrient can activate substances called proto-oncogenes that promote the development of tumours.

The US RDA (recommended daily allowance) for folic acid is currently 400 micrograms (0.4 mg) per day.—Reuters