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Guest column
Nutritional approaches shown viable in cancer prevention
By V. UPENDER RAO
Published December 26, 2005
New research is unraveling the mysteries of nutritional aspects of cancer prevention.
Shivendra Singh, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and urology and codirector of the Cancer Biochemoprevention Program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute says: "I truly believe that nutritional prevention of cancer is a practical and viable approach." He further adds that prostate cancer is one of the malignancies that can be prevented by certain foods.
Prostate cancer usually strikes in the sixth and seventh decades; if it can be delayed by 10 to 15 years, most men might not get it or live with it without experiencing any of its adverse consequences.
Keith Block, MD, clinical professor of medical education at the University of Illinois and cofounder of the Block Center for Integrative Cancer Care and Optimal Health says: "A consensus is now emerging that nutritional factors play a key role in the primary, secondary and tertiary chemoprevention." He further adds that modern research is revealing the ways by which nutrition and lifestyle influence the expression of certain genes that can reverse the process of carcinogenesis.
Andrew Mesecar, PhD, associate professor in the Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at the University of Illinois, explained in his recent publication how two key proteins, Keap 1 and Nrf2, sense ingested foods and spur the body's defenses against cancer.
He explained how Keap 1 senses sulforaphane, found in broccoli, when it links to cysteine residues (in Keap 1) and turns on the genes that avert DNA damage. Mesecar thinks that Keap 1 is a promising target for drug development.
The ultimate goal of this sort of research will be to identify foods that contain cancer fighting molecules that can be incorporated into daily foods or ingested as supplements.
In the coming weeks I will discuss research into the cancer preventing capabilities of some popular foods.
--V. Upender Rao, MD, FACP, practices at the Cancer and Blood Disease Center in Lecanto.
[Last modified December 26, 2005, 00:43:13]
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