Commentaries

Sulforaphane: from chemoprevention to pancreatic cancer treatment?

Johanna W Lampe

Correspondence to:
Dr Johanna W Lampe, Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1100 Fairview Ave N, M4-B402, PO Box 19024, Seattle, WA 98109, USA; jlampe@fhcrc.org

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Over the past several decades, research on the action of bioactive constituents of plants (ie, phytochemicals) has focused predominantly on their cancer-preventive properties. Evidence for a protective role for vegetables is strongest and most consistent for vegetables in the Cruciferae (Brassicaceae) plant family, such as broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower.^1–4 Cruciferous vegetables are characterised by a unique phytochemistry: their high content of the sulfur-containing glucosinolates or β-thioglucoside N-hydroxysulfates with a side chain and sulfur-linked β-D-glucopyranose moiety.⁵ Hydrolysis of glucosinolates by a β-thioglucosidase (myrosinase), either in the plant or by gut bacteria, results in the formation of biologically active compounds such as isothiocyanates and indoles.⁶ These bioactive compounds are hypothesised to be responsible for the chemoprotective effects conferred by a high cruciferous vegetable intake.

Isothiocyanates may exert their protective effects through several distinct mechanisms. Of the isothiocyanates, sulforaphane, which is found in broccoli and broccoli sprouts at . . . [Full text of this article]

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