Can eating broccoli prevent head and neck cancers?
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Health experts have touted broccoli as one of the healthiest food. It is, after all, an excellent source of vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber, among others. This also explains why a recent study that highlighted the vegetable’s cancer-fighting compound did not come as a surprise to many.
The study by the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and the UPMC CancerCenter noted that strong doses of the natural compound sulforaphane, which is usually found in high concentrations in broccoli sprout extract, activate a “detoxification” gene that may prevent the recurrence of head and neck cancers in survivors.
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Explained Julie Bauman, study lead author and co-director of the UPMC Head and Neck Cancer Center of Excellence, “With head and neck cancer, we often clear patients of cancer only to see it come back with deadly consequences a few years later. Unfortunately, previous efforts to develop a preventative drug to reduce this risk have been inefficient, intolerable in patients and expensive. That led us to ‘green chemoprevention’—the cost-effective development of treatments based on whole plants or their extracts.”
A 2014 Pitt study in China found that sulforaphane removed air pollution toxins in the body, including carcinogenic benzene. In the latest Pitt study, researchers found that sulforaphane also can potentially block cancers located from the lips to the voice box. While the study first involved mice and laboratory tests, the compound’s cancer-fighting mechanism was also confirmed in human volunteers who took fruit juice mixed with broccoli sprout for several days.
With the success of the study, the research team is now conducting a larger clinical trial involving participants who were previously cured of head and neck cancer.
Dr. Robert R. Beltran is an otolaryngologist practicing in Irvine, California. For the latest news and research in the field of otolaryngology, follow this Twitter account.
