Spread of Breast Cancer Linked To Compound In Asparagus and Other Foods (theguardian.com) 74
Asparagus and other foods like potatoes, nuts, legumes and soy contain a compound known as asparagine, which researchers believe helps drive the spread of breast cancer to other organs. "When scientists reduced asparagine in animals with breast cancer, they found that the number of secondary tumors in other tissues fell dramatically," The Guardian reports. "The spread of malignant cells, often to the bones, lungs and brain, is the main cause of death among patients who are diagnosed with breast cancer." From the report: Asparagine is an amino acid that is made naturally in the body as a building block for proteins. But it is also found in the diet, and in high levels in certain meats, vegetables and dairy products. The international team of cancer specialists from Britain, the U.S., and Canada studied mice with an aggressive form of breast cancer. The mice develop secondary tumors in a matter of weeks and tend to die from the disease within months. Writing in the journal Nature, the researchers describe how they reduced the ability of breast cancer to spread in the animals by blocking asparagine with a drug called L-asparaginase. To a lesser extent, by putting the animals on a low-asparagine diet worked too. Inspired by the results, the scientists examined records from human cancers and found that breast tumors that churned out the most asparagine were most likely to spread, leading patients to die sooner. The same was seen in cancers of the head, neck and kidney.
Re:So... (Score:5, Informative)
It was approved for use by the FDA in 1978 and is considered one of the safer chemotherapy drugs, so it is definitely a viable drug for cancer patients.
The study isn't about discovering a new drug. It's is about gaining a better understanding what the existing drug does so that we can use it more effectively.
Re:So... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So... (Score:5, Funny)
You fancy a kale smoothie for lunch. Also for dinner.
This post sponsored by the Kale Marketing Board.
Re: (Score:1)
Kale is NEVER safe to eat.
Re: (Score:2)
Ok, this is broccoli, but you get the idea. [gocomics.com]
"How Does the Media Get Something So Wrong" (Score:5, Informative)
Straight to the blowing stuff out of proportion department...
https://www.acsh.org/news/2018/02/08/no-asparagus-wont-give-you-cancer-12546
Re: (Score:2)
Where are the mod points when I need them? ;-)
Please, mod +1 informative!
RT.
Re:"How Does the Media Get Something So Wrong" (Score:5, Insightful)
Welcome to the clickbait age. "Widely used leukemia drug may help slow spread of other cancers also" might get some clicks in bio-medical circles, but it wouldn't draw the clicks from the wider public. But make it sound like a compound in common foods has been discovered to be linked to spreading cancer, and watch the ad impressions roll in. Even relatively respectable publications just can't resist that kind of thing these days.
Kids Agree! (Score:3)
Vegetables, especially Asparagus, will Kill You!!
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
The acsh headline is more crap than the guardian article, which doesn't say it causes cancer ... it says it causes the spread of existing breast cancer into other tissues. which was already known for the most part.
Re:"How Does the Media Get Something So Wrong" (Score:4)
If there was a "+6, Correcting severe misinformation in the headline and summary" mod point I could give you, I would.
Thank you for giving us the facts.
Re: (Score:2)
If your body produced sugar by photosynthesis, you'd have a point.
I wish this had been discovered... (Score:2)
...three years ago.
Aspergers causes cancer (Score:2, Troll)
Re: potatoes and soy is the world's #1 food (Score:5, Funny)
"The Dutch only eat potatoes...So what does the world need to eat to avoid this issue?"
The Dutch
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Most people cook asparagus until it's mush. Boil for ~3 min, long enough to take off the raw but still be bright and colorful green. Don't need salt or butter or any other coverup.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:1)
Plus, even reading about someone discussing how they once looked at a picture of a piece of asparagus... makes your piss stink for 24 hours.
I mean, seriously, I could understand it if you ate a bowlful of the stuff*, but even a couple of tiny bits in a slice of quiche or mixed vegetables and, an hour later, its "I'd give that 5 minutes if I were you". Don't let the homeopaths get hold of this: a 1:10000 dilution would probably take out a city block! (* c.f. "note to self - you had seconds of the beet sal
Re: (Score:1)
Cheese on asparagus would be disgusting - and I like asparagus. Grilled until tender, but not mushy, is one of the better ways to eat it. I marinate and heat in the marinade on low heat for a while and then put it on the grill for a few minutes. If it doesn't still have any crispness to it, it's overcooked and will taste strongly of bitter compounds.
Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)
I knew that Asparagus was the devil's vegetable, not only is it disgusting, it makes your pee smell bad too. Any "food" that does this simply couldn't be healthy.
Oh but we're f*cked.
"Asparagine is present in plants proteins in large amount.
Animal sources: dairy, whey, beef, poultry, eggs, fish, lactalbumin, seafood.
Plant sources: asparagus, potatoes, legumes, nuts, seeds, soy, whole grains. Asparagine is found in potatoes so eating French fries will give you asparagine along with starch. It is also found on roasted coffee."
In other words, EVERYTHING causes cancer
Many common foods (Score:3)
Nuts, whole grains, seeds, eggs, soy, potatoes, legumes, poultry, dairy, beef, seafood.
That's a lot to avoid. I wonder which are highest in asparagine, then perhaps having less of the highest ranking ones would be a start.
Re: (Score:2)
Not as much to avoid as common noises, which might cause heart disease...
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/e... [go.com]
Of course the world death rate is still at 100%:
https://www.theonion.com/world... [theonion.com]
Comment removed (Score:3)
Curse you Carbon, Oxygen and Hydrogen! (Score:4, Insightful)
These three elements seem to be the root cause of nearly every illness. Yet they use them all the time in our food, and our body has a large concentration of this in our systems ready to kill us at any time.
Re: (Score:2)
Because (((they))) want you to eat soy to lower your testosterone levels. Stick to Super Male Vitality, stay woke.
Over simplified (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Wait just a minute (Score:2)
Something a little more promising is... (Score:2)
Injecting minute amounts of two immune-stimulating agents directly into solid tumors in mice can eliminate all traces of cancer in the animals, including distant, untreated metastases, according to a study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Re: (Score:2)
Ah, so that's pee cancer... (Score:2)