Cancer Cure Now

Soybeans contain several biologically active compounds. Phytate is an organic acid present in the hulls of plant seed, which binds calcium and iron in the intestines. Iron is a known cancer promoter.

Saponins are antioxidants which protect DNA from damage and thus prevent cancer. Protease inhibitors, which inhibit the digestion of protein, are also responsible for direct anti-tumor activity. Most protease activity is destroyed when soy is cooked.

However, 7-8 percent activity remains, which is enough to produce physiological effects. In 1980, Dr. Walter Troll of the New York University Medical Center discovered that soy protease inhibitors inhibit cancer in animals.

1 Subsequent research has confirmed that they inhibit cancers of the skin, bladder, colon, lung, pancreas, mouth, and esophagus. This is caused by preventing the activation of the specific genes that cause cancer. Protease inhibitors also protect against mutagenic effects of radiation and free radicals, which can damage DNA.

Phytosterols inhibit colon cancer by shielding the intestines against liver-secreted bile acids.

Some claims have been made that phytosterols prevent both colon and skin cancer. Phytoestrogens are the most well known group of soy chemicals, with genistein being the most extensively studied. Estrogen-like isoflavones in soy have been promoted as preventatives for reproductive tract cancers (prostate, breast, uterine and ovarian) because they substitute for, and block the actions of, stronger hormones produced by the body itself.

Studies suggest that soy consumption by children can reduce the risk of breast cancer later in life by a factor of 14% to 40%. However, if consumption is started later in life, there seems to be little protective effect.

After reviewing the literature about soy, one researcher concluded in 2001, "Overall, the data are not impressive that the adult consumption of soy affects the risk of developing breast cancer or that soy consumption affects the survival of breast cancer patients.

"2 Other researchers reviewed the data of the Shanghai Breast Cancer Study, which studied1459 breast cancer patients between 1996 and 1998. The median follow-up time for study participants was 5.2 years. The researchers found that "soy intake prior to cancer diagnosis was unrelated to disease-free breast cancer survival."

3 Soy and genistein extracts may be useful in treating as well as preventing prostate cancer. Numerous in-vitro studies show that genistein inhibits growth of existing prostate cancer cells and helps kill these cells.

In 1999, Harvard Medical School researchers found that mice inoculated with prostate cancer cells and fed a soy-based diet live 25% longer than mice on a soy-free diet. The study authors noted that "our data suggest that dietary soy products may inhibit experimental prostate tumor growth through a combination of direct effects on tumor cells and indirect effects on tumor neovasculature.

"4 A number of studies by Dr. Gilda Hillman on mice inoculated with human prostate cancer cells showed that pre-treatment with genistein can potentiate the effects of radiotherapy. Analysis of the mean of prostate tumor weight in the different treatment groups showed that, relative to untreated tumors, the use of either genistein or radiation alone caused 30% and 73% tumor growth inhibition, respectively.

Combined treatment with both genistein and radiation caused a greater tumor growth inhibition of 87%. 5  Genistein seems to work in vitro by inhibiting a protein called Nuclear Factor Kappa B (NF-?B), which is activated to help cells recover from damage, such as the kind of damage that occurs when cancer cells are exposed to radiation treatment.6

Treating prostate tumors with genistein first, followed by radiation, and finishing up with continuous treatment with genistein, effectively controlled tumor growth. The combination inhibited the growth of prostate tumors and prevented metastasis to lymph nodes.

However, that pairing genistein with radiation therapy was found to be crucial. Unless genistein was combined with radiotherapy, the extract increased the rate of metastasis of mouse prostate tumors, an effect which did not occur when whole soy powder was used. Whole soy produced the same positive effects of genistein (radiosensitization) without the negative effect on tumor spread.7

In findings announced at the 2003 meeting of the American Urological Association on April 30, UC Davis Cancer Center researchers reported that genistein extract (5 grams a day of genistein concentrated polysaccharide), reduced PSA levels by as much as 61 percent in a group of 62 prostate cancer patients undergoing "watchful waiting" for their disease. The dietary supplement did not have the same effect in men who had undergone surgery, radiation or hormone therapy for their prostate cancer.

Based on these findings, prostate cancer patients may be helped by regular consumption of soy, especially just before radiotherapy treatments. There is no data to support recommendations of soy intake for patients with other types of cancer. Even as little as two servings of soy products per weeks can maintain detectable blood levels of genistein and other soy phytonutrients. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (1). Walter Troll , Rakoma Wiesner , Claire J. Shellabarger , Seymour Holtzman  and John P. Stone Soybean diet lowers breast tumor incidence in irradiated rats Carcinogenisis 1980 Vol 1 Number 6 Walter Troll, A Klassen, A Janoff Tumorigenisis in Mouse Skin : Inhibition by Synthetic Inhibitors of Protease  Science 1970 (2). Messina MJ, Loprinzi CL,Soy for breast cancer survivors: a critical review of the literature. J. Nutr 2001 Nov;131(11 Suppl):3095S-108S (3). Sonia M. Boyapati, Xiao-ou Shu Zhi Xian Ruan, Qi Dai, Qiuyin Cai, Yu-tang Gao and Wei Zheng Soyfood Intake and Breast Cancer Survival : A followup of the Shanghai Breast Cancer Study, Medicine Volume 92 Number 1 July 2005 (4). Zhou JR, Gugger ET, Tanaka T, Guo Y, Blackburn GL, Clinton SK. Soybean phyto- chemicals inhibit the growth of trans-plantable human prostate carcinoma and tumor angiogenesis in mice. J Nutr. 1999 Sep;129(9):1628-35. (5). Gilda G. Hillman, Yu Wang, Omer Kucuk, Mingxin Che, Daniel R. Doerge, Mark Yudelev, Michael C. Joiner, Brian Marples, Jeffrey D. Forman and Fazlul H. Sarkar, Genistein potentiates inhibition of tumor growth by radiation in a prostate cancer orthotopic model  Mol Cancer Ther. 2004;3:1271-1279 (6). Julian J Raffoul, Yu Wang, Omer Kucuk, Jeffrey D Forman, Fazlul H Sarkar, and Gilda G Hillman,Genistein inhibits radiation-induced activation of NF-êB in prostate cancer cells promoting apoptosis and G2/M cell cycle arrest BMC Cancer. 2006; 6: 107 (7). Yu Wang, Julian J. Raffoul, Mingxin Che, Daniel R. Doerge, Michael C. Joiner, Omer Kucuk, Fazlul H. Sarkar, and Gilda G. Hillman Prostate Cancer Treatment is Enhanced by Genistein In Vitro and In Vivo in a Syngeneic Orthotopic Tumor Model Radiation Research: Vol. 166, No. 1, pp. 73-80.