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.

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.

January 16, 2007 Tomatoes and broccoli — two vegetables known for their cancer-fighting qualities — are better at shrinking prostate tumors when both are part of the daily diet than when they’re eaten alone, according to a new study from University of Illinois and University of Ohio.

“When tomatoes and broccoli are eaten together, we see an additive effect,” said University of Illinois food science and human nutrition professor John Erdman. “We think it’s because different bioactive compounds in each food work on different anti-cancer pathways.”