Thursday, February 8, 2018

Proven Foods Help Affect Spread of Cancer

Scientists at Cambridge point out that there is strong evidence of a link between the foods you eat with the growth and spread of cancer. Research done on animals suggests breast tumors are difficult to spread without asparagine intake from food.

Asparagin itself can be found in asparagus, as well as poultry, seafood, and many other foods. Asparagin itself is an amino acid or protein block whose name is taken from asparagus vegetables. In the future scientists hope to take advantage of "culinary addiction" to treat cancer.

The study itself was conducted at Cancer Reasearch UK Cambridge Institute. The study was conducted on mice that had an aggressive form of breast cancer. Usually the animal will die within a few weeks because the tumor has spread throughout the body.

But when rats are given a low-asparagine diet or a drug to inhibit asparagin, the tumor is distressed to spread. "It's a very big change. (Cancer) It's very hard to find," said Prof. Greg Hannon, quoted by the BBC, Thursday (8/2).

Last year the University of Glasgow also showed that a reduction in intake of serine amino acids and glycine could slow the development of lymphoma and bowel cancer. "We see strong evidence that certain cancers are addicted to certain food components.In the future, by modifying the patient's diet or by using drugs that change the way tumor cells access certain nutrients, we hope to improve the outcomes of therapy".

Tumors in their own early stages are called rarely deadly. This is the phase when the cancer spreads throughout the body or metastasis and this can be fatal

Cancer cells have to go through major changes to spread. The cell must learn to release the main tumor, to understand in the bloodstream and then to develop elsewhere in the body.

This process is what researchers say needs asparagin. But for asparagus lovers this is not to worry about because these findings still need to be confirmed in humans and asparagin is hard to avoid in the diet. In the long run scientists think patients will use a special nutritious balanced diet, but reduce asparagin.

Prof Charles Swanton, head of the Cancer Research UK clinic, said the interest in L-asparaginase drug is used to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which depends on asparagin. "Maybe in the future, this drug can be given back to help treat breast cancer patients." Further tests are said to be needed.

Meanwhile Baroness Delyth Morgan, chief executive of Breast Cancer Now said that patients should not undergo drastic diet in this study. "We do not recommend that patients actually exclude certain food groups from their diet without consulting a doctor and we encourage all patients to follow a healthy and diverse diet," he concluded.

No comments: