(26-01-09) How Cruciferous Veggies Like Broccoli Fight Breast Cancer

by Sherry Baker, Health Sciences Editor


Food in the cruciferous, or cabbage, family of vegetables all contain phytochemicals, vitamins, minerals, and fiber that make them healthy
food choices. In addition, researchers have long noted an association between a diet rich in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, bok choy and cabbage and a decreased risk in breast cancer. But how do these foods in particular exert their protective effect?

Scientists in the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) say they've found the answer. In a study just published in the December issue of the journal Carcinogenesis, Leslie Wilson, professor of biochemistry and pharmacology, Mary Ann Jordan, adjunct professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, and their research team reveal how the healing power of these vegetables works at the cellular level.

Source:

"Breast cancer, the second
leading cause of cancer deaths in women, can be protected against by eating
cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage and near relatives of cabbage such as
broccoli and cauliflower. These vegetables contain compounds called
isothiocyanates which we believe to be responsible for the cancer-preventive
and anti-carcinogenic activities in these vegetables. Broccoli and broccoli
sprouts have the highest amount of the isothiocyanates," the study's first
author Olga Azarenko, a graduate student at UCSB, explained in a statement to
the media.

The new study focuses on the anti-cancer activity of one of these
isothiocyanates dubbed sulforaphane, or SFN. "It has already been shown to
reduce the incidence and rate of chemically induced mammary tumors in animals.
It inhibits the growth of cultured human breast cancer cells, leading to cell
death," Azarenko stated in the press release.

Azarenko discovered SFN inhibits
the proliferation of human tumor cells in much the same way anticancer drugs
taxol and vincristine do. However, SFN is much less toxic than the currently
used drugs.

"SFN may be an effective cancer preventive agent because it
inhibits the proliferation and kills precancerous cells. It is also possible
that it could be used as an addition to taxol and other similar drugs to
increase effective killing of tumor cells without increased toxicity,"
Professor Wilson noted in the media statement.

In another study published
earlier this year in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers
looked at the diets of more than 6,000 Chinese women and found that those with
the highest intake of two cruciferous vegetables, Chinese cabbage and white
turnips, had a lower risk of postmenopausal breast cancer than those who had
the lowest intake.

Interested in adding more cruciferous vegetables to you
diet? Remember that eating them raw or only lightly steamed is the best way to
retain their phytochemicals and other anti-cancer compounds.

For more information on the UCSB study: http://carcin.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/co...
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/...


Source: NaturalNews

News

---

In evidenza

"L'informazione presente nel sito serve a migliorare, e non a sostituire, il rapporto medico-paziente."

Per coloro che hanno problemi di salute si consiglia di consultare sempre il proprio medico curante.