New Study Finds Vegetables Can Prevent Bladder Cancer

At buffets, not everyone rushes to grab Brussels spouts, cauliflower and turnips. That could change since researchers at the Maryland Anderson Cancer Center report that cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, kale, collards, radish and watercress may offer protection against bladder cancer.

Investigators theorize that a compound called isothiocyanates (ITC) in these crunchy veggies activate detoxifying enzymes that prevent cancer formation.

In a study featured in the International Journal of Cancer, researchers compared 697 newly diagnosed bladder cancer patients to 708 controls matched by age, sex and race. After comparing the dietary intake of the groups, examiners found that the healthy volunteers consumed substantially more vegetables than the bladder cancer patients.

However, this anti-cancer effect do not extend so readily to the women in the study. Evidence of this sexist cancer protection appears in other investigations.

For example, in 2005, researchers reviewed the lifestyles of 237 bladder cancer patients who helped make up the 88,796 women enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study. After evaluating the patients' diets, examiners find no link between consumption of fruits and vegetables and bladder cancer risk. Incidentally, taking multivitamins or vitamins A, C or E did not influence bladder cancer risk among the women.

Notwithstanding, three years earlier a study presented in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that vitamin E reduced bladder cancer risk.

In this study, scientists examined the association between use of individual vitamin C and vitamin E supplements, and bladder cancer mortality among 991,522 adults. Researchers monitored the study participants via questionnaires from 1992 to 1998.
source:www.americanchronicle.com/