DUARTE, Calif., April 13, 2010 — Possessing a navy hue and a powerful punch, the blueberry is one of the most potent and popular disease fighters available. Now, City of Hope researchers have found another weapon to add to the blueberry’s arsenal of disease-fighting properties: the ability to control tumor growth, decrease metastasis and induce cell death in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells. The study will be published in the May 1 edition of Cancer Research, but is currently available on the journal’s Web site.
TNBC is a specific subtype of cancer that is lacking in estrogen, progesterone and human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2) receptors. Since most standard, successful breast cancer therapies target one or more of these receptors, TNBCs are difficult to treat. TNBCs account for approximately 15 percent of all breast cancers and generally carry a poorer prognosis compared to other subtypes with receptors present.
“We observed that blueberries help fight triple-negative breast cancers by suppressing pathways critical to tumor development and migration,” said Shiuan Chen, Ph.D., director of City of Hope’s Division of Tumor Cell Biology.
Chen, research fellow Lynn S. Adams, Ph.D., and their colleagues applied blueberry extracts to TNBC cell cultures and found that blueberry extract not only inhibits proliferation and mobility in TNBC cells, it also led to cell death (apoptosis) at over twice the rate of untreated cells.
Chen, Adams and others then tested blueberry extract’s effectiveness in laboratory animal models. The researchers found that the blueberry group’s TNBC tumor weight was 70 percent lighter than the control group and it also exhibited significantly lower proliferation and higher apoptosis activity.
“These results are promising because they demonstrated that the anticarcinogenic compounds are effectively absorbed when consumed orally and still have an impact on the cancer cells, and the amount given is equivalent to a 130-pound adult consuming about four ounces daily” said Chen. “Our team is hopeful that future research will identify the specific compounds in the fruit responsible for this action, as well as further investigating blueberries’ potential to slow down the progression and spread of this difficult form of breast cancer.”
Chen and his colleagues are currently planning a human clinical trial to test blueberries’ effect on breast cancer, in addition to research on the anticancer properties of other fruits and vegetables.
Other researchers involved in this study include: Sheryl Phung, M.S., Natalie Yee, M.S., from City of Hope and Liya Li, Ph.D., and Navindra P. Seeram, Ph.D., from University of Rhode Island. The study is funded by the National Institutes of Health and City of Hope’s Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research Grant.
