The research was aimed at improving the safety of laparoscopic surgery, an increasingly popular technique that involves tiny keyhole incisions and skinny instruments.        Enthusiasm for the technique has been tempered by some reports that laparoscopy for colon cancer can itself cause tumors to develop in the abdominal wall, along the path the surgical instruments took.        The Turkish researchers suggest honey might work as a barrier to tumor cells when it is spread in the incisions. The findings, based on a study of 60 mice, were published in December’s issue of the Archives of Surgery.        Dr. Tonia Young-Fadok, a Mayo Clinic surgeon participating in a U.S. study on whether laparoscopic surgery for colon cancer can cause new tumors, said substances in honey might actually help dissolve tumor cells.        “It’s not clear what the power of honey is, but there’s certainly something here that’s of interest,” Young-Fadok said.        Laparoscopies are being used increasingly to treat a variety of conditions that formerly required major operations. Skinny instruments and a slender viewing tube called a laparoscope are inserted through tiny incisions. Carbon dioxide gas is injected into the body cavity to cause the abdomen to swell, creating a work space for surgeons.        Colon tumors are essentially the only type of cancer for which doctors use laparoscopy.        Some theorize that the gas might cause cancer cells to shift location and form tumors. Others suggest that inexperienced surgeons might inadvertently cause malignant cells to implant as they extract the tumor.