Foods Enriched With Soy Peptide May Someday Help Treat Metastatic Liver Cancer

Consuming the soy peptide lunasin alone, without supplemental anti-cancer drugs, at 20 mg per kg of body weight cut the number of metastatic liver tumors in mice by 94 percent. The positive results by a U.S. research team followed a similar study in which mice with liver cancer were given lunasin injections along with the chemotherapy drug oxaliplatin. That therapy resulted in a six-fold reduction in metastatic tumors to the liver. It would be difficult for humans to consume enough soy foods to reach the 20-30 mg/k levels, researchers said, but food companies could offer lunasin-enriched soy milk or yogurt. Lunasin-enriched flour is already available commercially.