Estrogen may have protective effect, study finds.

2004 MAR 4 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- For the first time, a University of Missouri-Columbia researcher has shown that estrogen may protect against colon cancer.

Colon cancer is the third most common form of cancer in the United States. In 2001, 46,200 men and 52,000 women were diagnosed with new cases of colon cancer.

"This study suggests that colon cancer may be a hormone-responsive cancer, which may provide new ways to treat and or prevent this disease," said Ruth MacDonald, professor of food science at the University of Missouri-Columbia. "In addition, we discovered that soy protein could have a very positive effect on the number and size of tumors that do occur."

In her study, published in the January 2004 edition of the Journal of Nutrition, MacDonald fed female mice five different diets and then followed their progress for a year. The five diets were designed to compare the effects of specific ingredients. Diet 1 was made with milk protein, and diet 2 contained soy protein. Both diets were lacking any kind of estrogen. The other three diets contained soy protein with the addition of an estrogen component. Diet 3 contained soy protein and genistein, an estrogen-like compound found in soy. Diet 4 contained Novasoy, a commercial product containing a mixture of soy-derived compounds including genistein; and diet 5 contained estrone, a naturally occurring human ...