http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/health/3372702

M.D. Anderson research indicates phytoestrogens in food block disease

By TODD ACKERMAN
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

Houston researchers have found that eating certain fruits and vegetables may produce an unexpected benefit: protection against lung cancer.


University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center researchers are reporting that a diet emphasizing such foods as soy products, carrots, spinach, broccoli, beans, grains, oranges and berries appears to significantly reduce the risk of lung cancer.

"What your mother told you is right," said Dr. Margaret Spitz, chair of M.D. Anderson's department of epidemiology and the study's principal investigator. "Eat a varied diet complete with fruits and vegetables. A higher intake of them may lower your lung-cancer risk."

The study, reported in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association, found participants who ate the highest amount of "phytoestrogens" had a 46 percent reduction in the risk of developing lung cancer, compared with those who ate the lowest quantity.

Phytoestrogens are naturally occurring compounds that act like estrogen in the body.

The apparent benefits of high phytoestrogen intake were seen in both smokers and people who never smoked but were less pronounced in people who'd quit smoking.

Spitz cautioned that the study results shouldn't be seen as a license to keep smoking while eating more vegetables.

She also said the research needs to be followed up with a study that continues to track participants.

The M.D. Anderson team asked participants about their diet in the past year. The study enrolled more than 3,500 people, the largest study to examine dietary phytoestrogens and lung-cancer risk in a U.S. population.

Smaller and foreign studies have suggested phytoestrogens might act as a chemopreventative in lung and other cancers, but the data have been inconsistent.

The study was triggered by the research team's 2004 finding that women who used hormone-replacement therapy — taken to restore estrogen to postmenopausal women — had a lower risk of developing lung cancer than women who didn't.

The team wondered if foods with low levels of the compound would have the same effect.