Humble Mushroom in Clinical Breast Cancer Trial
Following recent research findings which revealed the cancer-fighting properties of white button mushrooms and their potential to slow breast cancer growth, researchers are planning to roll-out clinical trials.Professor Shiuan Chen, Director of Surgical Research at City of Hope Hospital in California, aims to build on his initial work which discovered that compounds in mushrooms suppressed the effects of aromatase, an enzyme responsible for oestrogen conversion in the body. Blocking aromatase reduces oestrogen levels among post-menopausal women and important because about 75% of post-menopausal women with breast cancer have tumours that depend on oestrogen to grow.
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Phase 1 of the clinical trial will recruit 24 post-menopausal breast cancer survivors diagnosed with breast cancer five or more years ago who remain free of the disease. Participants will be randomly assigned to take between 5 and 13 grams of freeze-dried white button mushrooms in tablet form daily for 12 weeks. Researchers will monitor aromatase activity and female hormones in participants, as well as levels of a group of compounds called conjugated linoleic acid that appear to be responsible for their anti-cancer properties. |
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Dr Melanie Palomares, a member of Chen's team and Assistant Professor of Medical Oncology and Population Sciences said: "We've seen that aromatase-inhibiting drugs are helpful in preventing recurrence in post-menopausal women with breast cancer, and breast cancer survivors were found to develop fewer new breast cancers too."
Doctors currently recommend that post-menopausal women with hormone responsive breast cancer take these drugs for two to five years. however, "at the end of this period, women can feel unsure what to do next", Chen said. "If mushrooms can reduce the risk, perhaps we can tell them to eat mushrooms instead."
This clinical trial will build on the research published by Hanyang University in South Korea which found that eating mushrooms may lower the risk of breast cancer. The research was based on more than 700 women, half of whom had the disease. The group who ate mushrooms daily were estimated to have an 80% reduced risk. White mushrooms had the strongest effect.(1)
Mushrooms also have an important role to play in every day diets. They are one of the highest antioxidant vegetables in the world, in the same league as red pepper and spinach. They were recently elevated to superfood status, as they are one of the few sources of L-ergothioniene, a potent antioxidant(2), which was found to have its own transport system in human cells.
They are a good source of easily absorbed, high quality vegetable protein, containing more than more other vegetables. They are also brimming with the five B vitamins thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3), pyridoxine (B6) and folate. In addition, mushrooms contain the essential minerals potassium, selenium, copper, phosphorous and small, but nutritionally important. amounts of iron.
For more information about the health benefits of mushrooms, please visit: http://www.mushroom-uk.com/
References:
(1) Hong SA, Kim K et al. International Journal of Cancer 2007; Vol 122, Issue 4, pp 919-923(2) Findings of Prof Robert Beelman at Pennsylvania State University in the US (2005)
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