OLIVE oil can help fight breast cancer, a discovery that researchers said in a study out yesterday could guide the development of related treatment.
"Our findings underpin epidemiological studies that show that the Mediterranean diet has significant protective effects against cancer, heart disease and ageing," said the study's lead author, Javier Menendez, of Northwestern University's Feinberg medical school in Chicago.
Researchers showed in a series of laboratory experiments on breast cancer cells that oleic acid, found in olive oil, dramatically cuts the levels of a cancer-promoting gene called Her-2/neu (also known as erb B-2), Mr Menendez said.
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