Now there’s one more reason to eat your veggies. According to a report in the March 1 issue of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, concentrated extract of freeze dried broccoli sprouts cut development of bladder tumors in an animal model by more than half.This finding reinforces human epidemiologic studies that have suggested that eating cruciferous vegetables like broccoli is associated with reduced risk for bladder cancer, according to the study’s senior investigator, Yuesheng Zhang, MD, PhD, professor of oncology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. “Although this is an animal study, it provides potent evidence that eating vegetables is beneficial in bladder cancer prevention,” he said.
There is strong evidence that the protective action of cruciferous vegetables derives at least in part from isothyiocyanates (ITCs), a group of phytochemicals with well-known cancer preventive activities. Other cruciferous vegetables with ITCs include mature broccoli, cabbage, kale, collard greens and others. Broccoli sprouts have approximately 30 times more ITCs than mature broccoli, and the sprout extract used by the researchers contains approximately 600 times as much.
Even though the animals in the study that received the most protection against bladder cancer were given high doses of the extract, Zhang doesn’t think humans need to eat large quantities of broccoli to get the same benefits.
“Epidemiologic studies have shown that dietary ITCs and cruciferous vegetable intake are inversely associated with bladder cancer risk in humans. It is possible that ITC doses much lower than those given to the rats in this study may be adequate for bladder cancer prevention,” he said.

Source: American Association for Cancer Research

• The study was done on animals, do you think the findings have any significance for humans?