Your mother was right: eating your green veggies, not to mention your apple a day, might keep the oncologist away. Researchers have found that chewing up cruciferous vegetables transforms a precursor compound and enzyme they contain into a powerful cancer-preventing compound called phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC).
The precursor compound and the enzyme it needs to become PEITC occur naturally in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower. Associate professor Moul Dey of the South Dakota State University Department of Health and Nutritional Sciences has found that PEITC may help prevent the spread and recurrence of some cancers.
PEITC probably has the potential to work as a dietary supplement, but research also proves that PEITC sufficient to prevent cancer can be achieved solely through diet. The discovery of this compound is notable in that cancer stem cells survive in the body even after tumors are treated with radiation or chemotherapy. "These cells are frequently resistant to conventional therapies," Dey says.
Less than 5 percent of a tumor is made up of cancer stem cells. However, they are very dangerous because they migrate throughout the body, causing cancer to spread to new areas. They can also regenerate the original tumor even after it was treated. Furthermore, cancer stem cells are a detection challenge for physicians:
"These tiny cells are very difficult to detect in a tumor. It's like finding a needle in a haystack."
When the research team used PEITC to treat human cervical cancer stem cells in a Petri dish, their results were very promising. About 75 percent of the stem cells died within 24 hours.
Although Dey and her team produced these results using a 20-micromolar concentration of the compound, they have also discovered that lower concentrations of PEITC are very effective. Dey and her team working with David Knudsen, a SDSU veterinary pathologist, prevented the spread of cancer in the lung tissue of mice dramatically with 10-micromolar concentrations of PEITC.
"Preliminary evidence has shown a quite dramatic difference between the lung sections from the PEITC-treated and untreated mice," Dey says, while cautioning that further testing is necessary to prove the connection for humans.
Dey and her team typically work with PEITC in concentrations of 5 to 15 micromolars-levels that can be achieved by eating a diet rich in cruciferous vegetables.
Now, Dey and the team plan to discovery how PEITC defeats the cancer stem cell resistance mechanisms that other drugs can't. "That's the second piece of this work."
