Study ..say strawberries prevent esophageal cancer

ccording to a preliminary study released Wednesday, strawberries have the potential to prevent esophageal cancer. Researchers, led by Ohio State University have shown that freeze-dried strawberries slowed the growth of dysplastic, or precancerous, lesions in about 30 people who consumed the fruit for six months. Study's lead researcher, Tong Chen, an assistant professor in the oncology division of Ohio State University, presented the study at the American Association for Cancer Research's annual meeting.
At present esophageal cancer or cancer of the food pipe is the third most common gastrointestinal cancer and the sixth most frequent cause of cancer death in the world, Dr. Chen said. About 16,000 new cases of esophageal cancer a year are diagnosed in the U.S., according to the American Cancer Society. Dr. Chen and colleagues are studying esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, the dominant type of esophageal cancerworld-wide. They are looking at whether food or other substances might preventcancer. Previous work showed that freeze-dried strawberries were able to significantly inhibit tumor development in rats.