A most powerful, natural prostate cancer fighter emerging

Sulforaphane, one of the primary phytochemicals in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables that helps them prevent cancer, has been shown for the first time to selectively target and kill cancer cells while leaving normal prostate cells healthy and unaffected. The findings, made by scientists in the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University, are another important step forward for the potential use of sulforaphone in cancer prevention and treatment.

It appears that sulforaphane, is an inhibitor of histone deacetylase, or HDAC enzymes. HDAC inhibition is one of the more promising fields of cancer treatment and is being targeted from both a pharmaceutical and dietary approach, scientists say. The findings were published in Molecular Nutrition and Food Research. The Linus Pauling Institute has conducted some of the leading studies on sulforaphane's role as an HDAC inhibitor -- one, but not all, of the mechanisms by which it may help prevent cancer. HDACs are a family of enzymes that, among other things, affect access to DNA and play a role in whether certain genes are expressed or not, such as tumor suppressor genes (a term called epigenetics). Some of the mechanisms that help prevent inappropriate cell growth -- the hallmark of cancer -- are circumvented in cancer cells. HDAC inhibitors can help "turn on" these silenced genes and restore normal cellular function.

Steve - consumption of sulforaphane-rich foods are non-toxic, safe, simple and affordable. This study should be the leading headline of the health section of every major media source, right? Yet I came across it in on an obscure website that does not attract many eyeballs. If a drug company created a patentable, synthetic version of sulforaphane that was successful in clinical trials, would it be a stretch to say that it would be plastered all over the news?