A POWDER made from starch that can be sprinkled on food is being tested as a potential bowel cancer treatment.

The Royal Melbourne Hospital is testing the genetically modified starch made by the CSIRO to see if it can reduce the disease’s progression.

It is being used by more than 100 patients with a genetic condition, familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), which can develop into bowel cancer.

The participants are eating the powder in milk or sprinkling it on cereal and salads to see if it can reduce the number of polyps in their colon.

What researchers uncover will help them better understand bowel cancer. There are almost 15,000 new cases in Australia each year, and it kills 4000 people annually.

Professor Finlay Macrae, the head of the hospital’s colorectal medicine and genetics department, said that to make the powder, CSIRO scientists used a resistant starch that was difficult to digest and capable of making its way into the colon.

They modified the starch so that it contained a chemical called butyrate, which is a normal product of fermentation in the gut.

Prof Macrae said that butyrate had also been shown to have anti-cancer properties in animal and laboratory studies.

“It inhibits the growth of cancerous cells, but the issue has always been how you deliver it to the colon in sufficient quantities,” he said.

“The scientists chemically attached butyrate to starch so that when it is ingested and reaches the colon it releases a big punch of it.”

Prof Macrae is now testing the starch, called StarPlusB, in patients with FAP who have hundreds of thousands of polyps that are not cancerous, but can turn malignant.

“We want to see if StarPlusB can stop growth of the many polyps that they develop,” he said.

Grace Fastuca, who has FAP, is fundraising for the trial and her nephew, Bradley (right) is taking part. Grace, 44, has endured 12 surgeries and is having chemotherapy after the condition progressed to bowel cancer. It claimed the lives of her brother and mother.

“My family and I want to help find a cure, or at the very least, something that delays any onset illnesses caused by this disease. This trial is our biggest hope yet,” she said.

She said it would be fantastic if the trial helped people with other bowel cancers.

To donate, visit rmhfoundation.org.au