Nutr res: unexpected! Eating walnuts can inhibit breast cancer!

April 28, 2019 / BIOON / - a new study from Marshall University shows that walnut intake is an important factor in inhibiting breast cancer growth and patient survival A Marshall University team led by W Elaine Hardman, Professor of biomedical science at Joan C Edwards School of medicine, Marshall University, found that eating two ounces of walnuts a day for about two weeks could significantly change the gene expression of breast cancer patients This pilot clinical trial is the latest in a series of Marshall University studies linking walnuts in the diet to the growth, survival and metastasis of breast cancer Photo source: the research of nutrition research is published in the recently published journal of nutrition research "Eating walnuts slows down the growth of breast cancer and reduces the risk of breast cancer in mice," Hardman said On the basis of this study, our team speculated that eating walnuts would change gene expression in patients with pathologically confirmed breast cancer, thereby reducing the growth of breast cancer and improving survival rate " In this preliminary clinical trial, the researchers recruited patients with breast masses large enough for research and pathological biopsy, and randomly divided them into walnut eating group and control group After biopsies were collected, women in the walnut group started eating two ounces of walnuts a day until subsequent surgery Pathological studies confirmed that all women in the study had breast cancer About two weeks after the biopsy, the researchers collected additional samples from breast tissue during the operation The researchers compared the changes in gene expression in each woman The expression profile of RNA sequencing showed that the expression of 456 identified genes in the tumor changed significantly due to the consumption of walnut The analysis showed that the pathway promoting apoptosis and cell adhesion was activated, while the pathway promoting cell proliferation and migration was inhibited "These results support the hypothesis that walnuts can inhibit the growth and survival of breast cancer patients," Hardman said However, we need to conduct in-depth analysis through a larger scale of research in order to prove that eating walnuts can indeed reduce the risk of breast cancer or breast cancer recurrence in clinical practice " Reference: W Elaine Hardman et al, dietary walnut altered gene expressions related to more growth, survival, and metadata in burst cancer patients: a pilot clinical trial, nutrition research (2019) Doi: 10.1016/j.nutres.2019.03.004