Study confirms safety, cancer-targeting ability of nutrient in broccoli, other vegetables, researchers say

ScienceDaily (June 9, 2011) — Sulforaphane, one of the primary phytochemicals in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables that helps them prevent cancer, has been shown for the first time to selectively target and kill cancer cells while leaving normal prostate cells healthy and unaffected.

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The findings, made by scientists in the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University, are another important step forward for the potential use of sulforaphone in cancer prevention and treatment. Clinical prevention trials are already under way for its use in these areas, particularly prostate and breast cancer.

It appears that sulforaphane, which is found at fairly high levels in broccoli, cauliflower and other cruciferous vegetables, is an inhibitor of histone deacetylase, or HDAC enzymes. HDAC inhibition is one of the more promising fields of cancer treatment and is being targeted from both a pharmaceutical and dietary approach, scientists say.

"It's important to demonstrate that sulforaphane is safe if we propose to use it in cancer prevention or therapies," said Emily Ho, a principal investigator in the Linus Pauling Institute, lead author on the study and associate professor in the OSU Department of Nutrition and Exercise Sciences.

"Just because a phytochemical or nutrient is found in food doesn't always mean its safe, and a lot can also depend on the form or levels consumed," Ho said. "But this does appear to be a phytochemical that can selectively kill cancer cells, and that's always what you look for in cancer therapies."

The findings were published in Molecular Nutrition and Food Research, a professional journal. Research was supported by the National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the OSU Agricultural Experiment Station.

The Linus Pauling Institute has conducted some of the leading studies on sulforaphane's role as an HDAC inhibitor -- one, but not all, of the mechanisms by which it may help prevent cancer. HDACs are a family of enzymes that, among other things, affect access to DNA and play a role in whether certain genes are expressed or not, such as tumor suppressor genes.

Some of the mechanisms that help prevent inappropriate cell growth -- the hallmark of cancer -- are circumvented in cancer cells. HDAC inhibitors can help "turn on" these silenced genes and restore normal cellular function.

Previous OSU studies done with mouse models showed that prostate tumor growth was slowed by a diet containing sulforaphane.

"It is well documented that sulforaphane can target cancer cells through multiple chemopreventive mechanisms," the researchers wrote in their study. "Here we show for the first time that sulforaphane selectively targets benign hyperplasia cells and cancerous prostate cells while leaving the normal prostate cells unaffected."

"These findings regarding the relative safety of sulforaphane to normal tissues have significant clinical relevance as the use of sulforaphane moves towards use in human clinical trials," they said.

The results also suggest that consumption of sulforaphane-rich foods should be non-toxic, safe, simple and affordable.

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Patients referred to dermatologists skin lesions evaluations also found to have other skin cancers

ScienceDaily (May 17, 2011) — Among patients referred by non-dermatologists to dermatologists for evaluation of skin lesions suspected of being malignant, only apparently one-fifth were found to be cancerous, although dermatologists identified and biopsied other incidental lesions, approximately half of which were malignant, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

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"More than one million skin cancers are diagnosed annually in the United States , with one in five Americans developing skin cancer during their lifetime," the authors write as background information in the article. "Non-dermatologists, particularly primary care physicians, play an important role in skin lesion assessment and initiation of referrals to the dermatologist."

Kate V. Viola, M.D., of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program and Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven , Conn. , and colleagues sought to evaluate the proportion of suspicious lesions identified by non-dermatologists that are found to be malignant compared to the number of secondary skin lesions identified at the time of dermatology referral.

The authors evaluated medical records of 400 patients who were referred by a non-dermatologist to the dermatology service at the Veterans Affairs (VA) Connecticut Health System for evaluation of suspicious skin lesions between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2009.

Of the 400 patients included in the study, the average age was 77.7 years, 98 percent were white men and 74 (18.5 percent) had a history of skin cancer. Most lesions (224 of 400 or 56 percent) were considered to be non-malignant by the consulting dermatologist, requiring no biopsy. Of the 176 lesions that needed biopsies, 88 were malignant according to the dermatopathology report, meaning 88 of 400 patients (22 percent) had an index lesion (lesions that prompted the referral) that was positive for cancer.

Dermatologists biopsied an additional 111 incidental lesions (secondary lesions identified, not the reason for referral), of which 61 (55 percent) were malignant. Twelve of 61 patients (19.7 percent) with a malignant incidental lesion had an index lesion that was not biopsied. Nearly half of all skin cancers identified were not the referral lesion, and 9.8 percent of the incidental lesions discovered by the dermatologist were melanomas.

In the present study, "a substantial proportion of malignant lesions was incidentally identified by the consulting dermatologist in addition to the primary lesion of concern," the authors write. The authors also suggest that "non-dermatologists may benefit from focused educational initiatives on skin cancer detection, particularly the significance of the total body skin examination and the expectations for and limitations of teledermatology."

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