An anti-cancer compound in broccoli and cabbage, indole-3-carbinol, is undergoing clinical trials in men with prostate cancer and women with breast cancer because it was found to stop the growth of these cancers in mice.

Now scientists have discovered more about how it works. They’ve found that in breast cancer it lowers the activity of an enzyme associated with rapidly advancing cancer growth, according to a University of California, Berkeley, study appearing this week in the online early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The new findings are claimed as the first to explain how indole-3-carbinol (I3C) stops cell growth. This new understanding is expected to speed designs for improved versions of the chemical that would be more effective as a drug and could work against a broader range of breast as well as prostate tumors.

Canadian researchers report that men who eat fish several times a week may protect themselves from prostate cancer, while men who eat meat, ham or sausage 5 times a week may have a 3-fold increased risk of prostate cancer. These findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting a relationship between diet and prostate cancer risk.

“Many studies have suggested that nutritional factors may affect prostate cancer development,” says Armen Aprikian, MD. of the urology division McGill University Health Centre, Montréal, Que. ” The aim of our study was to evaluate the relationship between dietary habits and prostate cancer detection.”

Research at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, led by Ajit Varki, M.D., has shown a new mechanism for how human consumption of red meat and milk products could contribute to the increased risk of cancerous tumors. In brief, people who consume animal products expose their own tissues to close contact with animal molecules.  This may set up an immune response.

The new findings suggest that inflammation resulting from a molecule introduced through consumption of red meat and milk could promote tumor growth. The results are published online this week in advance of print publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Tomato paste

Tomato paste made from dried tomato powder may not strike you as the most delicious way to prepare this nutritious food, but new research suggests that this is the form in which tomatoes have most prostate cancer-prevention potential.

A positive anti-prostate cancer effect for tomato products has been suggested in many studies. This effect has often been attributed to lycopene. But it’s starting to look as though lycopene is only part of the story.

New cancer research from the University of Missouri, published in the June 1 issue of Cancer Research, suggests that dehydrating tomatoes and rehydrating the powder is key.

Dr. Gary Stoner, a researcher in chemoprevention, is currently conducting several trials evaluating black raspberry supplements as a way to prevent or slow the growth of colon and other cancers. He and other scientists at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center have been researching the anticancer properties of berries for nearly 20 years.