A concentrated extract of freeze dried broccoli sprouts cut development of bladder tumours in an animal model by more than half, according to a report in the March 1 issue of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
This finding reinforces human epidemiologic studies that have suggested that eating cruciferous vegetables like broccoli is associated with reduced risk for bladder cancer, according to the study's senior investigator, Yuesheng Zhang, MD, PhD, professor of oncology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute.
"Although this is an animal study, it provides potent evidence that eating vegetables is beneficial in bladder cancer prevention," he said.
There is strong evidence that the protective action of cruciferous vegetables derives at least in part from isothyiocyanates (ITCs), a group of phytochemicals with well-known cancer preventive activities.
"The bladder is particularly responsive to this group of natural chemicals," Zhang said. "In our experiments, the broccoli sprout ITCs after oral administration were selectively delivered to the bladder tissues through urinary excretion."
Other cruciferous vegetables with ITCs include mature broccoli, cabbage, kale, collard greens and others. Broccoli sprouts have approximately 30 times more ITCs than mature broccoli, and the sprout extract used by the researchers contains approximately 600 times as much.
What are the known health benefits of broccoli?
Broccoli sprout-derived extract can protect human skins from the damage of UV radiation, thus it can help preventing skin cancer. The protective chemical agent in the broccoli sprout extracts is sulforaphane.
Three-day-old broccoli sprouts were found to consistently contain 20 to 50 times the amount of chemoprotective compounds found in mature broccoli heads.
Another research shows that compounds in broccoli may supercharge the body's ability to mop up free radicals and so protect against high blood pressure, stroke and heart diseases.
Moreover, eating broccoli sprouts during pregnancy may protect your children against cardiovascular disease into their adulthood.
In the present study, although animals that had the most protection against development of bladder cancer were given high doses of the extract, Zhang said humans at increased risk for this cancer likely do not need to eat huge amounts of broccoli sprouts in order to derive protective benefits.
