Zinc seen to prevent oral cancers
Monday, January 10, 2005
PHILADELPHIA, Jan 10, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) — Philadelphia cancer researchers have found that zinc treatment may help prevent esophageal and oral cancers in individuals at high risk.
Dr. Louise Fong, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, and her co-workers found zinc given orally to zinc-deficient rats reverses the development of precancerous conditions in the esophagus and tongue.
In 2002, Fong first reported rats given a carcinogen while on a zinc-deficient diet developed esophageal cancer, while administering zinc prevented the cancer.
Zinc in the diet comes mostly from red meat and seafood. While up to 10 percent of Americans have a zinc-deficient diet, as many as 2 billion people in developing countries are zinc-deficient, and epidemiological evidence shows the incidence of esophageal and oral cancers is rising in recent years.
As many as 13,000 U.S. residents die from esophageal cancer each year.
The findings are reported in the Jan. 5 Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
