Feeding your body's defenses against cancer

Feeding your body's defenses against cancer

If garlic, broccoli, green tea or jogging could be patented, things might be different. Large, high-quality clinical trials would be held and oncologists would write out an anti-cancer grocery list. But although there's a great deal of scientific evidence showing an effect of foods on cancer growth, no one wants to fund the large, controlled trials because no profits can be made.

"It's very easy to fund a single drug looking at a single target," said Block. "But it often doesn't work. Single drugs address, at most, two targets. They cost way too much and are too toxic to use several at once.

"But if you take the phytochemical curcumin found in the Indian spice turmeric - which hits over 70 targets - you might get different results," Block said. "It might not be enough to knock down cancer on its own.

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