Breast Cancer vs. Mushrooms

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM · December 26, 2012 · Volume 11

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Researchers pit plain white mushrooms against breast cancer cells in vitro to measure aromatase activity, and estimate how many mushrooms women may want to strive to include in their daily diet.

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Transcript

Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

If you remember, plain, cheap, convenient white mushrooms appeared able to outsmart breast cancer cells that try to make their own estrogen, by crippling the enzyme tumors use to make it. But, this was based on placental tissue samples.

Let’s stack mushrooms up against the real thing. Human breast cancer cells in a petri dish. If you do nothing, they just keep growing and proliferating at the same rate. But, if you add the raw material the cancer cells use to make their own estrogen, they take full advantage, and grow like crazy, ten times as fast. But then, as you add more and more white mushroom extract to shut off estrogen manufacturing, you can get cancer growth almost back to baseline.

So, the last study proved mushrooms could inhibit that enzyme, and even figured out which mushroom worked the best. Here, they went a step further to see it in action, in actual breast cancer cells.

Now that we know it may work, what’s the required dose? I mean, how many mushrooms do you have to eat? Maybe it’s some, you know, ridiculous amount? Based on these studies, the consumption of just five mushrooms a day may be sufficient to suppress breast tumor growth.

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Sources

Acknowledgements

Image thanks to Ranko via Wikimedia Commons.

Topics

Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

If you remember, plain, cheap, convenient white mushrooms appeared able to outsmart breast cancer cells that try to make their own estrogen, by crippling the enzyme tumors use to make it. But, this was based on placental tissue samples.

Let’s stack mushrooms up against the real thing. Human breast cancer cells in a petri dish. If you do nothing, they just keep growing and proliferating at the same rate. But, if you add the raw material the cancer cells use to make their own estrogen, they take full advantage, and grow like crazy, ten times as fast. But then, as you add more and more white mushroom extract to shut off estrogen manufacturing, you can get cancer growth almost back to baseline.

So, the last study proved mushrooms could inhibit that enzyme, and even figured out which mushroom worked the best. Here, they went a step further to see it in action, in actual breast cancer cells.

Now that we know it may work, what’s the required dose? I mean, how many mushrooms do you have to eat? Maybe it’s some, you know, ridiculous amount? Based on these studies, the consumption of just five mushrooms a day may be sufficient to suppress breast tumor growth.

Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.

Image thanks to Ranko via Wikimedia Commons.

Doctor's Note

Mushrooms appear to work in the lab to suppress breast cancer cell growth—but what about in the real world? That’s the subject of Why Do Asian Women Have Less Breast Cancer? The placenta study was profiled in Vegetables Versus Breast Cancer, and a comparison of the effects of different types of mushrooms can be found in Breast Cancer Prevention: Which Mushroom is Best? More on the magic of mushrooms in Making Our Arteries Less Sticky, and Constructing a Cognitive Portfolio. Probably a good idea to cook them, though. Also, I have dozens of other videos on breast cancer.

For more context, check out my associated blog posts: Ergothioneine: A New Vitamin?; Why Less Breast Cancer in Asia?; Vitamin D from Mushrooms, Sun, or Supplements?; and Mushrooms and Immunity.

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