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Broccoli Component Could Help Prevent Or Treat Breast Cancer

Article Date: 04 May 2010

A compound derived from broccoli could help prevent or treat breast cancer by targeting cancer stem cells -- the small number of cells that fuel a tumor's growth -- according to a newstudy from researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The study tested sulforaphane, a component of broccoli and broccoli sprouts, in both mice andcell cultures. Researchers found sulforaphane targeted and killed the cancer stem cells and

prevented new tumors from growing.

"Sulforaphane has been studied previously for its effects on cancer, but this study shows that its benefit is in inhibiting the breast cancer stem cells. This new insight suggests the potentialof sulforaphane or broccoli extract to prevent or treat cancer by targeting the critical cancer stem cells," says study author Duxin Sun, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmaceutical

sciences at the U-M College of Pharmacy and a researcher with the U-M ComprehensiveCancer Center.

Results of the study appear in the May 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research.

Current chemotherapies do not work against cancer stem cells, which is why cancer recurs andspreads. Researchers believe that eliminating the cancer stem cells is key to controllingcancer.

In the current study, researchers took mice with breast cancer and injected varyingconcentrations of sulforaphane from the broccoli extract. Researchers then used severalestablished methods to assess the number of cancer stem cells in the tumors. Thesemeasures showed a marked decrease in the cancer stem cell population after treatment withsulforaphane, with little effect on the normal cells. Further, cancer cells from mice treatedwith sulforaphane were unable to generate new tumors. The researchers then testedsulforaphane on human breast cancer cell cultures in the lab, finding similar decreases inthe cancer stem cells.

"This research suggests a potential new treatment that could be combined with other compoundsto target breast cancer stem cells. Developing treatments that effectively target the cancer stem cell population is essential for improving outcomes," says study author Max S.Wicha, M.D., Distinguished Professor of Oncology and director of the U-MComprehensive Cancer Center.

The concentrations of sulforaphane used in the study were higher than what can be achieved byeating broccoli or broccoli sprouts. Prior research suggests the concentrations needed toimpact cancer can be absorbed by the body from the broccoli extract, but side effects arenot known. While the extract is available in capsule form as a supplement, concentrationsare unregulated and will vary.

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This work has not been tested in patients, and patients are not encouraged to add sulforaphanesupplements to their diet at this time.

Researchers are currently developing a method to extract and preserve sulforaphane and will bedeveloping a clinical trial to test sulforaphane as a prevention and treatment for breast

cancer. No clinical trial is currently available.Breast cancer statistics: 194,280 Americans will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year and

40,610 will die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society

Additional authors : Yanyan Li, Tao Zhang, Hasan Korkaya, Suling Liu, Hsiu-Fang Lee, Bryan Newman, Yanke Yu, Shawn G. Clouthier and Steven J. Schwartz

Funding : National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute

Reference: Clinical Cancer Research, Vol. 16, No. 9; May 1, 2010

Source: University of Michigan Health System

Novel Breast Cancer Vaccine Successfully Tested in Mice Article Date: 31 May 2010

US immunologists have developed a prototype breast cancer vaccine that targets a protein that isonly present in breast cells when a woman is lactating or when she has breast cancer: they foundit provided protection against breast cancer in mice and suggest it could be developed to protectwomen against the disease in their post-childbearing years.

You can read how lead investigator Dr Vincent Tuohy, and colleagues from the ClevelandClinic's Lerner Research Institute in Cleveland, Ohio, conducted their research in an online

before print issue of their study that appeared in Nature Medicine on 30 May.

In a statement, the researchers said enrolling for human trials could start next year, and if successful, this could be the first vaccine to prevent breast cancer.

Tuohy told the press that:

"We believe that this vaccine will someday be used to prevent breast cancer in adult women inthe same way that vaccines have prevented many childhood diseases."

"If it works in humans the way it works in mice, this will be monumental. We could eliminate breast cancer," he added.

The vaccine targets -lactalbumin, a protein found in the majority of breast cancers, and only present in healthy women when they are lactating, that is when their breasts are producing milk.

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The challenge of developing a vaccine against cancer is that cancer is not like a virus that theimmune system readily recognizes as alien: cancer cells are no more than over-producedvariations of healthy cells, and trying to vaccinate against cancer cells risks destroying healthytissue as well.

The key is therefore to find something that is present in and necessary for cancer cells to survive, but targeting it does not wipe out healthy cells at the same time: it revs up the immune system, but only targets the protein necessary for tumor formation.

So Tuohy and colleagues decided to try for -lactalbumin, because this would fit with a strategyof vaccinating women over 40, when breast cancer risk begins to rise and pregnancy is lesslikely. (They explained that if a woman receiving this vaccine did fall pregnant then her breastswould feel sore and she would probably have to opt not to breast feed).

For the study, they tested the effect of the vaccine in mice genetically bred to be prone to breastcancer: usually such mice develop breast tumors at the age of 10 months.

They injected six 2-month old cancer-prone mice with a vaccine that contained the -lactalbuminantigen and an adjuvant (a chemical that boosts the immune system to help the vaccine), andanother six had a dummy injection that did not contain the antigen. None of the mice had cancer when they were injected.

After 10 months, all the mice that had not received the antigen had developed large breasttumors, while none of the mice that had received the antigen showed signs of breast tumors.

Prepared by:Cinense, JaysonReyes, Rhea