New study shows how certain vegetables combat cancer

Scientists in University of California,

Santa Barbara, reported on Tuesday that their new research has shown how

the healing power of cruciferous vegetables works at the cellular level.

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WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (Chinese media) -- While it has been known for some time that

eating cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, can help prevent breast cancer,

the mechanism by which the active substances in these vegetables inhibit cell

proliferation was unknown -- until now.

Scientists in University of California, Santa

Barbara, reported on Tuesday that their new research has shown how the healing

power of these vegetables works at the cellular level.

The study results was published in this month's

journal Carcinogenesis.

"Breast cancer can be protected against by eating

cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage and near relatives of cabbage such as

broccoli and cauliflower," said first author Olga Azarenko. "These vegetables

contain compounds called isothiocyanates which we believe to be responsible for

the cancer-preventive and anti-carcinogenic activities in these vegetables."

Their research focuses on the anti-cancer activity of

one of these compounds, called 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.

The researchers made the surprising discovery that

SFN inhibits the proliferation of human tumor cells by a mechanism similar to

the way that the anticancer drugs taxol and vincristine inhibit cell division

during mitosis. However SFN is much weaker than these other plant-based drugs,

and thus much less toxic.

"SFN may be an effective cancer preventive agent

because it inhibits the proliferation and kills precancerous cells," said the

authors. 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.