Pomegranate Extract May Lower Breast Cancer Risk
Lee Swanson Reserach Update
Laboratory tests suggest pomegranates contain compounds that reduce a woman’s risk of developing hormone-dependent breast cancers, researchers report.
A metabolite of ellagic acid found in pomegranates may inhibit an enzyme called aromatase that converts androgen to estrogen, and that also plays a key role in the development of breast cancer, according to findings published in Cancer Prevention Research.
Researchers from the City of Hope in Duarte, CA, and the University of California, Los Angeles, said they were surprised by their findings. "We previously found other fruits, such as grapes, to be capable of the inhibition of aromatase. But, phytochemicals in pomegranates and in grapes are different," said principal investigator Shiuan Chen, Ph.D.
Chen and his co-workers screened ten ellagitannin-derived compounds from pomegranates, including ellagic acid, gallagic acid and urolithins A and B against a breast cancer cell line. According to the researchers, ellagitannin are converted to ellagic acid in the body, and this is then converted to urolithins by gut microflora.
The results showed that urolithin B was the most potent inhibitor of breast cancer cell growth at doses of 2.35 and 4.7 micromoles per liter in the in-cell assay.
"The ingestion of pomegranate juice can lead to concentrations of circulating urolithins reaching up to 18 micromoles per liter in blood," the researchers said. "Taken together with the results of current studies and reports of the presence of urolithin A and urolithin B in the blood and urine of human subjects following pomegranate ingestion, the results of these analyses suggest that pomegranate intake may be a viable strategy for the chemoprevention of breast cancer."
The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Cancer Prevention Research 3(1):108-113, 2010
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