Friday September 22 5:42 PM

Chemicals in broccoli can cut lung cancer risk

By Todd Zwillich

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - New evidence from a large study in China
suggests that chemicals contained in broccoli, cabbage, or bok choy
can help
protect people from developing lung cancer.

The study of more than 18,000 men found that people with detectable
amounts
of chemicals known as isothiocyanates in their bodies had a 36% lower
chance
of developing lung cancer over 10 years than those without the
chemicals.
The chemicals are found in broccoli and other so called
``cruciferous''
vegetables.

Researchers from the National Institute of Environmental Health
Sciences
(NIEHS) in North Carolina along with colleagues in China performed the
study
in four small communities in Shanghai. That site is notable because of
its
population's high smoking rate and high level of cruciferous vegetable
consumption, according to Dr. Stephanie J. London, an epidemiologist
and the
study's lead investigator.

The researchers recorded 259 cases of lung cancer during the study's
follow-up period. The lowered cancer risk associated with
isothiocyanate
levels held up even after influences like smoking were factored out.

Patients' genetic makeup also significantly affected how much
protection
they got from isothiocyanates. Those who lacked genes that metabolize
the
chemicals--about 60% of the total study population--had more
protection than
those who carried the genes.

The study is the first to link biological measures of isothiocyanates
with a
decrease in cancer risk. Other studies have relied on dietary
questionnaires
that give no information as to how much of the chemicals actually are
circulating in subjects' bodies.

While the results suggest that eating broccoli and related vegetables
can
lower cancer risk even for smokers, no one should assume that
isothiocyanates would be enough to protect smokers from cancer, London
warned.