Taking dietary phytosterols may help delay the onset of breast cancer and slow the progression of the disease and improve metabolic parameters, according to a study in Nutritional Biochemistry.  Authors found dietary phytosterol supplementation in female mice fed a high fat, high cholesterol diet reduced the development of mammary hyperplastic lesions and total tumor burden in mice that were prone to developing breast cancer.   Early studies show dietary phytoesterol supplements reduce serum low density lipoprotein cholesterol and have a protective effect against common cancers.  The study concluded dietary phytoesterol supplements could prevent breast cancer growth associated with a high fat deit.  An estimated 210,000 women in the United States are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer each year and the disease and its complications kill about 40,000 annually, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Gemma Llaverias, Joan Carles Escolà-Gil, Enrique Lerma, Josep Julve, Cristina Pons, Anna Cabré, Montserrat Cofán, Emilio Ros, José Luis Sánchez-Quesada, Francisco Blanco-Vacaemail  

Phytosterols inhibit the tumor growth and lipoprotein oxidizability induced by a high-fat diet in mice with inherited breast cancer

Nutritional Biochemistry

(DL)