Peaches Fight Breast Cancer

Breast cancer accounts for nearly 23% of all cancers worldwide and while most cases are found in women, men can be diagnosed as well. Researchers have been looking for answers and cures...but a Washington State University food scientist and colleagues at Texas A&M may have a simple solution. Lacy Gray has more.

GRAY: Writing in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, the researchers say the compounds could be a novel addition to therapies that reduce the risk of metastasis, the primary killer in breast and many other cancers. The compounds could be given as an extract or, judging from the doses given mice in the study, two to three peaches a day. Giuliana Noratto, WSU assistant professor of food science says having enough fruits and vegetables that can provide these compounds in our diet might have a similar preventive effect. She was drawn to the research after doing work on the antioxidant activity of root plants in her native Peru.

Thanks Lacy. Researchers saw that after 12 days, mice fed with high levels of polyphenols had tumors that grew less and without much of the blood vessel formation that can help cancer cells spread to other parts of the body. The tumors in those mice also had less evidence of enzymes involved in the spread and invasion of cancer.

That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.