From Comments from Joseph R. H. See, MD, medical oncologist and hematologist with OHC. Article by Catharine Paddock, PhD, Medical News Today
October 25, 2018
Joseph R.H. See, MD, medical oncologist and hematologist with OHC
A new study emphasizes the importance of eating plenty of vegetables such as cabbage, broccoli, and kale for a healthy digestive system to prevent colon cancer.
Researchers from the Francis Crick Institute in London, England found that keeping mice on a diet rich in a compound known as indole-3-carbinol (I3C) — which comes from such vegetables — prevented the animals’ intestines from becoming inflamed and developing colon cancer. They report the study in a paper now published in the journal, Immunity.
“There are a lot of people who eat I3C foods for cancer prevention and other conditions, but there hasn’t been good scientific evidence to support these uses – until this study,” said Joseph R. H. See, MD, medical oncologist and hematologist with OHC.
Our digestive system produces I3C when we eat vegetables from a large and diverse group of plants known as brassicas. Brassicas are similar to cruciferous vegetables and include broccoli, cabbage, collards, Brussels sprouts, kale, cauliflower, kohlrabi, swede, turnip, bok choi, and mizuna.
Although interest in I3C has increased significantly in the past 5-10 years, only a few studies provide clear evidence of the effects related to formation of a cancer. These new findings are the first to give “concrete evidence” of how dietary I3C — through its effect on a cell protein known as aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) — protects the digestive system from inflammation and cancer. AhR has several roles:
- It picks up environmental signals and passes them on to immune cells and other cells in the gut lining. These signals are important for protecting the digestive tract from inflammation by promoting signals that come from the “trillions of bacteria” that live in it.
- AhR helps stem cells convert into specialized gut lining cells that produce protective mucus and help extract nutrients from food. When AhR is absent or does not work properly, the stem cells do not convert into working cells in the gut lining but instead “divide uncontrollably.” Uncontrolled cell division may lead to abnormal growths that can become malignant, or cancerous.
For AhR to work properly, it has to be activated by a compound that binds to it uniquely. I3C is such a compound.
In the study, Dr. Stockinger and her colleagues saw that normal laboratory mice that ate “purified control diets” developed colon tumors within 10 weeks, while those that ate standard “chow” containing grains and other ingredients did not develop any. (Purified control diets are tightly controlled to include precise amounts of protein, fat, carbohydrate, fiber, minerals, and vitamins. They are designed to exactly match nutritional requirements without including germs, allergens, and other substances that might introduce spurious variables in experiments.)
The new study suggests that because purified control diets contain less plant matter, they have fewer compounds – such as I3C – that activate AhR, compared with standard chow diets or diets enriched with I3C. Additionally, when they switched mice that were already developing colon cancer to a diet rich in I3C, they found that those animals developed significantly fewer tumors and that those tumors were less likely to be malignant.
In discussing their results, the researchers raise the issue of whether it is the high fat content or the low consumption of vegetables in high-fat diets that explains the link to colon cancer. They now expect to continue the work on I3C and AhR with organoids grown from human gut tissue extracted in biopsies. Eventually, they expect the work to lead to human trials.
“This is good work because it provides solid evidence that we may be able to significantly reduce the incidence of colon cancer by eating plenty of vegetables,” Dr. See added. “As doctors, our role will be to educate our community and our patients so they have the knowledge to make lifestyle changes.”
Colon cancer typically starts as a growth, or polyp, in the lining of the colon or large intestine. It can take many years for the cancer to develop from a polyp and not all polyps become cancerous. In the early stages, colon cancer is one of the most curable cancers. Contrary to popular belief, only 15 percent of colon cancer patients must have a permanent colostomy. For more information about colon cancer and treatment options, click here or call OHC at 1-888-649-4800.
Photo Credit: Shulevskyy Volodymyr
