THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 2, 1996 TAG: 9609020035
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 92 lines
Five years ago, when ``60 Minutes'' broadcast a program on the health benefits of drinking red wine, sales of the ruby liquid exploded.
Now, an Old Dominion University researcher thinks he may have found another benefit - the possibility that it may provide certain protections against breast cancer.
And it doesn't matter if you prefer chardonnay or burgundy.
Dr. Roy L. Williams, an Old Dominion chemistry professor and self-professed oeniphile - a fancy name for a wine-lover - presented research this summer at a scientific meeting in Bordeaux, France, that showed that a compound found in wine kills two kinds of breast cancer cells. His research was done on cancer cells in test tubes.
The compound, trans-resveratrol, is an anti-fungal agent found in red and white grape skins. It is a ``phyto-estrogen,'' a naturally occurring plant product that shares many attributes of the female hormone estrogen. Among other things, estrogen stimulates cancer cells to grow and multiply.
Compounds like trans-resveratrol have ``anti-estrogenic'' properties. The compound blocks sites on certain types of cancer cells, to which estrogen usually binds, so no estrogen gets in. In a sense, the compound ``fools'' the cell into thinking that it is estrogen.
This property keeps estrogen away from the cell, thus preventing the hormone's effects.
Williams directs Old Dominion's Enological Research Facility, which, among other things, studies the chemistry of wines.
He conducted his research with another Old Dominion chemistry professor, Mark S. Elliott, and Dr. Roger Perry, an oncologist at Eastern Virginia Medical School.
Perry warns that the data is ``very, very, very preliminary.''
``I don't think that you could say at this point in time that drinking wine is beneficial for the treatment or prevention of breast cancer,'' Perry said. ``It's much too preliminary to say that.''
However, ``the fact that there appears to be something in wine that has activity against breast cancer definitely warrants more study.''
The research results have been published in the proceedings of the meeting of Groupe Polyphenols, a scientific organization that studies anti-oxidents in wine.
Anti-oxidents are substances, like vitamin E, that gobble up free radicals - the byproducts of cells which can damage other other cells, resulting in aging and some forms of cancer. Trans-resveratrol is also an anti-oxident.
Scientists believe polyphenols are responsible for many of the effects of the ``French Paradox'' - the low rate of heart disease in France, a country with a diet high in cholesterol and fat.
Williams decided to test trans-resveratrol on cancer cells when he recognized that the structure of the compound's molecule was similar to that of tamoxifen, a drug used to treat some forms of breast cancer.
Tamoxifen also has ``anti-estrogenic,'' properties.
The researchers hypothesize that trans-resveratrol also works by inhibiting certain enzymes that are also related to cancer cell growth.
Trans-resveratrol may indeed have anti-cancer properties, says a California researcher who has conducted studies on trans-resveratrol and other compounds found in wine. However, the compound is found in relatively small amounts in wine.
``It's not clear whether or not the dosages would be reaching the tissue,'' said Bruce German, an associate professor in food science at the University of California in Davis.
Williams estimates that as little as two glasses of wine per day could provide some beneficial effect against breast cancer, depending on the rate of absorption. The compound is not commercially available, he said, but is synthesized by chemical companies for research.
Eventually, he said, it could be available in pill form. ``But I think it's much more pleasant to get it in a glass of wine,'' he said.
Some studies have shown that alcohol can increase a woman's risk of breast cancer, German noted. Trans-resveratrol is also found in soybeans.
But Perry said those studies focused on alcohol, not wine. ``The way wine is made, there are certain other compounds that are felt to have the anti-tumor activity, which isn't present in all forms of alcohol,'' he said.
Williams is aware of the limitations of his research. He is searching for the funding necessary to continue his studies, perhaps expanding them to animals.
In the meantime, he's taken the unusual step of going directly to the media to get the message out to the public about the potential new benefit in wine.
``It's my opinion that the people who want to learn about these things watch `60 Minutes.' They don't read medical journals,'' he said. ``If we're right, and the preliminary data shows that we are, then people should know about these things.'' ILLUSTRATION: [color photo
[Glass of red wine]
Research by ODU chemistry professor Roy L. Williams shows a compound
found in wine kills two types of breast cancer cells. He says the
results are preliminary, but warrant more study.
KEYWORDS: WINE BREAST CANCER by CNB