Scientists have found that a compound found in soybeans may help to prevent the spread of prostate cancer.
Preventing metastasis, the process by which cancer spreads around the body, is vitally important as it is this process that generally leads to a patient's death, rather than the initial tumour.
Researchers found that the soy-derived compound, genistein, decreased the spread of prostate cancer to the lungs by 96 per cent in mice which had been implanted with human prostate cancer cells.
"These impressive results give us hope that genistein might show some effect in preventing the spread of prostate cancer in patients," said Dr Raymond Bergan, director of experimental therapeutics at the Robert H Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Centre of Northwestern University.
"Diet can affect cancer and it doesn't do it by magic," he noted. "Certain chemicals have beneficial effects and now we have all the preclinical studies we need to suggest genistein might be a very promising chemopreventive drug."
Scientists have found that a compound found in soybeans may help to prevent the spread of prostate cancer.
