Using Berries to Fight Cancer

C L E M S O N, S.C., Oct. 16, 2000 -- Blueberries and strawberries could beenlisted in the fight against cancer, Clemson Universityresearchers say.

A study funded by the U.S. Agriculture Department has found thepopular berries contain agents that do battle with cancer cells,said Lyndon Larcom, a microbiologist and biophysicist leading theresearch team.

“We’ve found that blueberries and strawberries have significantinhibition on cell growth,” he said.

Berries Resist Mutations

“With the strawberry juice, there are less than half as manymutations,” he said, “and with blueberries there are somewherearound half as many.”

Scientists around the world have confirmed the correlationbetween diets rich in fruits and vegetables and a lower incidenceof cancer. Now berries can be added to the list.

“The question,” says Larcom, “is ‘Why?’”

Once the tumor-preventing compounds are identified, they may beable to be concentrated in a pill form, much like vitamins, orbioengineered in larger amounts in berries or in other plants,Larcom said.

“There are thousands of chemicals in the berries,” he said.“And the thing we’re working against here is that the activity islikely not due to just one, but probably some sort of synergisticeffect.”

Watching Berry Pulp at Work

Researchers at Clemson’s Kinard Lab place cancer cells in a dishequipped with tiny wells. Then they add berry juice or pulp, aswell as a chemical that measures the rate at which the cells grow,and examine that growth during the rapid division phase as well asthe latent phase.

The extracts appear to be most effective in the early stageswhen cells are just beginning to grow, Larcom said.

The team also is examining the berries’ effect on agents insidecells known as tumor suppressor proteins, which are involved inslowing down cell division and destroying cancer cells, he said.

Larcom says the study is in its second year and the team expectsto publish its results in a medical journal next summer.

Clemson graduate student Hope Smith, Clemson microbiologist Dr.George Huang, Dr. Otto Geoffroy at the Medical University of SouthCarolina, Dr. Sam Smith, an oncologist at Greenville HospitalSystem, and Dr. David Wedge of the Agriculture Department are allinvolved in the study.

Future Food Enhancer?

Elizabeth Tuckermanty, nutritionist and program director for theFund for Rural America, the competitive grant arm of USDA, said theresearch holds “exciting commercial aspects,” noting thatcereals, breads and other foods are fortified with vitamins said toinhibit cancer.

“There is a precedent for it and a lot of interest fromcorporations in doing that kind of thing,” she said, noting thatresearch is being conducted into a variety of foods.

“We are looking at a lot of fruits and vegetables and any pieceof information we have is valuable,” she said. “There is a wealthof different substances in every food that we don’t know about.”