Dr. You’s studies of Antitumor B demonstrated an even more dramatic effect on pre-cancerous lung lesions. “It’s one of the most potent agents we’ve seen,” he said. “Antitumor B can inhibit lung cancer by almost 90 percent in laboratory models.”


Power-Packed Berries


Asia is not the only source of chemopreventive plants. Some of the most powerful anti-cancer compounds are found in foods native to Wisconsin.


Gary Stoner, PhD, director of the Molecular Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program at the Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Center, began researching food- based prevention strategies in the 1980s. “I was working in the lab with a compound called ellagic acid, a naturally occurring polyphenol,” Dr. Stoner said. Searching for dietary sources of ellagic acid, his attention turned to fruit. “My colleagues and I freeze-dried 30 or 40 types of fruit, and ground them into powder. We found the highest level of ellagic acid in black raspberries.”


Ming You, MD, PhD


In a series of laboratory studies, Dr. Stoner found that black raspberry powder can offer strong protection against colon, esophageal, skin and other cancers — up to an 80 percent risk reduction.


He eventually discovered that black raspberries contain more than a dozen different cancer-preventive compounds. The most potent appear to be the anthocyanins, which give berries their color. “In general, the darker the color, the higher the level of anthocyanins," he said.


Dr. Stoner recently found that berry powder can cause regression of pre-cancerous lesions in the mouth and rectum.


“Patients with pre-cancerious lesions of the mouth treated themselves four times a day with a toothpaste-like gel containing 10 percent berry powder, rubbing the gel on the lesion,” he said. “After six weeks, the gel had caused histological regression in about 60 percent of the lesions.” Dr. Stoner recently won funding from the National Cancer Institute to test the berry gel extensively in a larger patient group.


“Similarly, high-risk patients with rectum polyps treated themselves with 60 grams per day of berry powder taken orally with water. This resulted in a 40 percent regression of rectal polyps, which can be precursors for rectal cancer.” The berries were as effective in regressing rectal polyps as certain non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.


How Do They Work?


Berries and green tea contain high levels of antioxidants. Antioxidants block oxygen radicals from damaging cell DNA and interrupt molecular pathways that signal cancer cells to grow and divide. Antioxidants also stimulate apoptosis, the body’s normal means of clearing away unwanted cells.


Dr. Stoner noted that berry extracts reduce angiogenesis — the formation of new blood vessels needed to feed a developing tumor, and they also reduce inflammation, which can contribute to cancer development.


Gary Stoner, PhD


Berries influence the expression of multiple cellular genes. For example, all normal cells have tumor suppressor genes that regulate their growth. During tumor development, these genes are often “silenced” through a process called


methylation. “Berries cause demethylation of tumor suppressor genes,” Dr. Stoner said. “They turn the genes back on to put the brakes on cancer cell growth.”


Safe for Long-term Use


As more natural substances are validated as cancer preventives, they could have a huge impact on health worldwide. The number of individuals at high risk for cancer amounts to tens of millions in the United States alone. Most would need to take chemopreventive agents for long periods, which rules out many conventional drugs.


“One needs to be extremely careful in using synthetic compounds for prevention, because most have unintended side effects,” Dr. You said. Food-based chemoprevention avoids this problem. “An effective dose of green tea equals six cups of decaf taken daily,” he said. “If the natural compound dose is equivalent to normal consumption, it is unlikely to be toxic.”


In the future, a person at high risk for a certain cancer may be treated with one or more natural compounds clinically proven to drastically reduce risk. “Ideally, they’ll never get cancer,” he said. “Alternatively, we may delay the onset of cancer by 10 to 30 years, so patients would not get it until they are 90-plus years old.”


Realizing this dream will take years of research and clinical trials. “It will take many steps,” Dr. You said, “but I am hopeful that in my lifetime, we will be able to use these substances to prevent millions of cases of cancer.”


Special Report 2011 866-680-0505 7


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