Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute found that a plant compound PEITC can hinder the development of mammary tumours in a mouse model with similarities to human breast cancer progression.
Edible plants are gaining ground as chemopreventative agents. PEITC has shown to be effective as a chemopreventative agent in mice for colon, intestinal, and prostate cancer, by inducing apoptosis, the process of programmed cell death in multicellular organisms.
Shivendra V Singh from the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and colleagues placed mice on two diets- a control diet, and a diet supplemented with PEITC for 29 weeks.
The researchers found that administering PEITC for 29 weeks was linked with a 56.3 per cent reduction in mammary carcinoma lesions greater than 2 mm.
"Although PEITC administration does not confer complete protection against mammary carcinogenesis, mice placed on the PEITC-supplemented diet, compared with mice placed on the control diet, clearly exhibited suppression of carcinoma progression," the researchers said in a statement.
The study was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
