Research from the US has found that eating pomegranates, which contain anti-aromatase phytochemicals, reduces the incidence of hormone-dependent breast cancer.

The study’s results have just been published in the January issue of Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Pomegranate is enriched in a series of compounds known as ellagitannins that, as shown in this study, appear to be responsible for the anti-proliferative effect of the pomegranate.

Lead researcher Dr Shiuan Chen said: “Phytochemicals suppress oestrogen production that prevents the proliferation of breast cancer cells and the growth of oestrogen-responsive tumors.”

These latest results add to the discoveries from previous research, which had shown that pomegranate juice is high in antioxidant activity. Now it seems that the aromatase in pomegranates plays a key role in inhibiting breast cancer, which is generally attributed to the fruit’s high polyphenol content. Ellagic acid found in pomegranates inhibits aromatase, an enzyme that converts androgen to estrogen. Aromatase plays a key role in breast carcinogenesis; therefore, the growth of breast cancer is inhibited.

Dr Chen, who worked with a team at City of Hope cancer centre in Duarte, California, evaluated whether phytochemicals in pomegranates can suppress aromatase and ultimately inhibit cancer growth.

Chen said: “We were surprised by our findings. We previously found other fruits, such as grapes, to be capable of the inhibition of aromatase. But, phytochemicals in pomegranates and in grapes are different.”

According to Dr Gary Stoner, professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at Ohio State University and independent of the City of Hope research, believes additional studies will be needed. He said: “This is an in vitro study in which relatively high levels of ellagitannin compounds were required to demonstrate an anti-proliferative effect on cultured breast cancer cells. It’s not clear that these levels could be achieved in animals or in humans because the ellagitannins are not well absorbed into blood when provided in the diet.”

Stoner believes these results are promising enough to suggest that more experiments with pomegranate in animals and humans are warranted.

He said people “might consider consuming more pomegranates to protect against cancer development in the breast and perhaps in other tissues and organs,” pending further research.

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