Breast cancer is on the rise.

More than 50% of cancers have a nutritional component in their etiology.
 
Noted in the June 2009 edition of the Journal of  Clinical Oncology.       
Corresponding author: Dong M. Shin, MD, Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322; e-mail: dmshin@emory.edu

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States.

It is mostly a preventable disease.


Simply by modification of diet, maintenance of optimum body weight, and regular physical activity, 30% to 40% of all instances of cancer could be prevented.

Modification of diet alone by increasing vegetable and fruit intake could prevent 20% or more of all cases of cancer and may potentially prevent approximately 200,000 cancer-related deaths annually.

Extensive research over the past several decades has identified numerous dietary and botanical natural compounds that have chemopreventive potential.



Noted in the December 2012 edition of Anticancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry. 
Anticancer Agents Med Chem. 2012 Dec;12(10):1159-84.

Cancer prevention with promising natural products: mechanisms of action and molecular targets.

Pratheeshkumar P1, Sreekala C, Zhang Z, Budhraja A, Ding S, Son YO, Wang X, Hitron A, Hyun-Jung K, Wang L, Lee JC, Shi X.

Author information
1Graduate Center for Toxicology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40536, USA.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide.

There is greater need for more effective and less toxic therapeutic and preventive strategies.

Phytochemicals and dietary compounds have been used for the treatment of cancer throughout history due to their safety, low toxicity, and general availability.

Studies have indicated that daily consumption of dietary phytochemicals have cancer protective effects against carcinogens.

They can inhibit, delay, or reverse carcinogenesis by inducing detoxifying and antioxidant enzymes systems, regulating inflammatory and proliferative signaling pathways, and inducing cell cycle arrest and apoptosis.

Epidemiological studies have also revealed that high dietary intakes of fruits and vegetables reduce the risk of cancer.
Anticancer Agents Med Chem. 2012 Dec;12(10):1185-202.

Chemoprevention of breast cancer by dietary compounds.

Vadodkar AS1, Suman S, Lakshmanaswamy R, Damodaran C.

Author information
Center of Excellence in Cancer Research, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, El Paso, TX 79905, USA.

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women in the United States and many other countries. There is an immediate need for more effective and less toxic therapeutic and preventive strategies for many cancers, especially for breast cancer. Natural products are being tested with a hope of identifying novel potent molecules as anticancer agents. Phytochemicals and dietary compounds have been used for the treatment of various illnesses throughout history due to their safety, low toxicity, and general availability. Currently, many active phytochemicals are in clinical trials. Preclinical and clinical studies have indicated that daily consumption of dietary phytochemicals reduces the risk of several cancers. Phytochemicals can inhibit, delay, or reverse carcinogenesis by inducing detoxifying and antioxidant enzymes, by regulating inflammatory/proliferative signaling pathways, and by inducing apoptosis. This review article describes some of the potential natural cancer preventive compounds, along with a mechanistic discussion of their interactions with key cellular signal transduction pathways.