Researchers are investigating whether it is possible to turn the active ingredients of soya into a useful medicine that may help to beat breast cancer, the British Pharmaceutical Conference heard today.
Soya contains isoflavones, which are thought to have potential therapeutic benefit in breast cancer and other conditions, including osteoporosis. Epidemiological studies indicate that women in the Far East, who have high dietary intake of soya products, have lower rates of breast cancer than Western women.
Dr Karen James and colleagues from the School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Portsmouth, have been investigating ways of converting natural isoflavones into a therapeutic agent. Dr James explained: “There are few drugs based on isoflavones available for clinical use and there are good reasons for this. Isoflavones are not very potent and they are rapidly metabolised in the body. While lifetime intake of low doses in the diet might be beneficial, developing a drug therapy requires a new approach.”
The Portsmouth work is aimed at finding a way to make the isoflavone compound stay longer in the body whilst retaining, or enhancing, the beneficial biological properties. The researchers used derivatives of daidzien, a known isoflavone. They tested the effect of the compounds on the growth of hormone dependent breast cancer cells and found they had a stimulant effect at lower concentrations and a reduction in cancer cell growth at high concentrations.