Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 12, 1994 TAG: 9404120136
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short
In a study to be published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists said that doses of compounds found in broccoli and some other vegetables provided cancer protection for a group of rats that had been exposed to powerful cancer-causing chemicals.
Dr. Paul Talalay, a Hopkins researcher who is co-author of the study, said Monday that sulforaphane and some related compounds apparently are able to amplify the body's own defenses against chemicals that can lead to cancer.
``Most cancer-causing chemicals are themselves innocuous until they enter cells where they are converted to enzymes which are highly reactive and are capable of initiating tumor formation,'' said Talalay.
Sulforaphane and its chemical cousins, he said, cause the body to produce another type of enzyme that blocks the cancer-causing action of the first enzyme.
``The second family of enzymes tend to detoxify the effects of the other enzymes,'' said the researcher. He called the results ``quite dramatic.''
by CNB