A Handful Of Walnuts a Day Against Breast Cancer
A study relates the consumption of this dried fruit with the reduction of the growth of the tumors in women.
A new research from the Marshall University (USA), published in the journal “Nutrition Research”, relates the consumption of walnuts with the reduction of growth and survival of breast tumors. The study, led by Dr. W. Elaine Hardman, a professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, revealed that taking two ounces of walnuts a day (about 57 grams) for two weeks caused a significant change in the gene expression of breast cancers Confirmed.
This essay is the latest in a series of studies by the Marshall University on nut consumption and its relationship to tumor growth, survival and metastasis in breast cancer.
Previous Studies had already related the consumption of walnuts with the reduction of growth of breast tumors and/or the risk of developing them in mice. Based on these investigations, the Hardman team wanted to demonstrate this relationship in women, under the hypothesis that the intake of these nuts change the gene expression in breast cancers confirmed reducing their growth and survival.
In This first clinical trial, women were recruited with breast lumps large enough for the investigation. They Were assigned the control group or the one who consumed random nuts. Immediately after the biopsy, the women of the NUT group began to consume two ounces a day of this dried fruit until the day of surgery. Pathological studies confirmed that lumps were breast cancer in all women who remained in the trial. In the surgery, approximately two weeks after the biopsy, additional breast cancer samples were taken.
The comparison of the gene expression of both samples, that obtained with the biopsy and the surgery, in each participant, revealed that the expression of 456 genes identified in the tumor had changed significantly due to the consumption of walnuts.
“These results support the hypothesis that, in humans, the intake of walnuts could contain the growth and survival of breast cancers,” said Hardman, who recognized that a larger-scale study is needed to clinically confirm that consumption of Nuts really reduces the risk of breast cancer or recurrent breast cancer. “