Olive Oil Helps In Breast Cancer Fight

[matcom]

<snip>

OLIVE oil can help fight breast cancer, a discovery that researchers said in a study out yesterday could guide the development of related treatment.

"Our findings underpin epidemiological studies that show that the Mediterranean diet has significant protective effects against cancer, heart disease and ageing," said the study's lead author, Javier Menendez, of Northwestern University's Feinberg medical school in Chicago.

Researchers showed in a series of laboratory experiments on breast cancer cells that oleic acid, found in olive oil, dramatically cuts the levels of a cancer-promoting gene called Her-2/neu (also known as erb B-2), Mr Menendez said.

High levels of the gene occur in over a fifth of breast cancer patients and are associated with highly aggressive tumours that have a poor prognosis, according to findings reported in the January 10 Annals of Oncology.

Oleic acid suppressed the gene, and other tests showed that it boosted an antibody treatment trastuzumab (Herceptin), which aims for the gene and has helped to prolong the lives of many breast cancer patients, the researchers said.

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,11909770%255E401,00.html

[rfranklin]

1. Brought to by a generous donation from...

the Olive Oil Council of Spain. Not to be too cynical but they really should be required to tell where the funding came from because it is a critical factor in evaluating the study.

[papau]

2. Seems like a solid study - where did you find the funding relationship?

Javier Menendez, of Northwestern University's Feinberg medical school in Chicago

Ruth Lupu, director of the Evanston Northwestern Health Research Institute's Breast Cancer Translational Program

Ramon Colomer, head of the Medical Oncology Division at Institut Catala d' Oncologia in Girona, Spain