This is promising!

Source:
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
Date:
2006-01-15

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060115153317.htm

Curry And Cauliflower Could Halt Prostate Cancer

Rutgers researchers have found that the curry spice turmeric holds
real potential for the treatment and prevention of prostate cancer,
particularly when combined with certain vegetables.

The scientists tested turmeric, also known as curcumin, along with
phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC), a naturally occurring substance
particularly abundant in a group of vegetables that includes
watercress, cabbage, winter cress, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale,
cauliflower, kohlrabi and turnips. "The bottom line is that PEITC and
curcumin, alone or in combination, demonstrate significant
cancer-preventive qualities in laboratory mice, and the combination of
PEITC and curcumin could be effective in treating established prostate
cancers," said Ah-Ng Tony Kong, a professor of pharmaceutics at
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

The discovery was announced in the Jan. 15 issue of the journal Cancer
Research by Kong and his colleagues at Rutgers' Ernest Mario School of
Pharmacy.

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men in
the United States, with a half-million new cases appearing each year.
The incidence and mortality of prostate cancer have not decreased in
past decades despite tremendous efforts and resources devoted to
treatment. This is because advanced prostate cancer cells are barely
responsive even to high concentrations of chemotherapeutic agents or
radiotherapy.

The authors noted that in contrast to the high incidence of prostate
cancer in the United States, the incidence of this disease is very low
in India. This has been attributed to the dietary consumption of large
amounts of plant-based foods rich in phytochemicals  nonnutritive plant
chemicals that have protective or disease-preventive properties.

Consequently, scientists have been investigating intervention options
based on compounds found in edible and medicinal plants. They have had
some success, and a majority of patients with prostate cancer are now
combining the conventional therapies with these compounds as
alternative, supplementary or complementary medications.

For Kong's study, researchers used mice bred so that their immune
systems would not reject foreign biological material and injected the
mice with cells from human prostate cancer cell lines to grow tumors
against which the compounds could be tested.

"Despite convincing data from laboratory cell cultures, we knew little
about how PEITC and curcumin would perform in live animals, especially
on prostate cancer," Kong said. "So we undertook this study to evaluate
how effective PEITC and curcumin might be -- individually and in
combination -- to prevent and possibly treat prostate cancer."

The researchers injected the mice with curcumin or PEITC, alone or in
combination, three times a week for four weeks, beginning a day before
the introduction of the prostate cancer cells. They found the
injections significantly retarded the growth of cancerous tumors. Using
PEITC and curcumin in tandem produced even stronger effects.

The group went on to evaluate the therapeutic potential of curcumin
and PEITC in mice with well-established tumors, and the results showed
that PEITC or curcumin alone had little effect, whereas the combination
of curcumin and PEITC significantly reduced tumor growth.

 
###

The paper, "Combined Inhibitory Effects of Curcumin and Phenethyl
Isothiocyanate on the Growth of Human PC-3 Prostate Xenografts in
Immunodeficient Mice," is available at cancerres.aacrjournals.org.

The authors are Tin Oo Khor, Young-Sam Keum, Wen Lin, Jung-Hwan Kim,
Rong Hu, Guoxiang Shen, Changjiang Xu, Avanthika Gopalakrishnan,
Bandaru Reddy, Xi Zheng, Allan H. Conney and Ah-Ng Tony Kong, all from
Rutgers.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060115153317.htm