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Article By Catherine Donaldson-Evans : AOL Health

An extract found in broccoli can kill breast cancer stem cells, which drive a tumor’s growth, researchers at the University of Michigan’s Comprehensive Cancer Center have learned.

The study’s lead author, student Yanyan Li, senior author, Duxin Sun, Ph.D., and colleagues tested the compound sulforaphane, which is in broccoli and broccoli sprouts, on mice and in human cell cultures.

Sulforaphane killed the cancer’s stem cells and, in turn, stopped new tumors from forming, according to the findings.

“We were actually very surprised. We never thought it would have this effect,” Sun, an associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the U-M College of Pharmacy, told AOL Health. “If we want it to kill cancer stem cells, normally in other natural products we need a very, very high concentration. This one is a very low concentration. That was our second surprise.”

The study appears in the May 1 issue of “Clinical Cancer Research” and was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute.

The findings are significant because existing chemotherapy treatments do not eliminate the stem cells of cancer, which is why the disease can spread or come back. Researchers in the field believe that the most effective way to stop cancer is to kill its stem cells.

“Sulforaphane has been studied previously for its effects on cancer, but this study shows that its benefit is in inhibiting the breast cancer stem cells,” Sun said earlier in a statement. “This new insight suggests the potential of sulforaphane or broccoli extract to prevent or treat cancer by targeting the critical cancer stem cells.”

Researchers injected mice with breast cancer with different concentrations of the broccoli extract and measured the number of cancer stem cells in the tumors using several accepted methods.

After the sulforaphane was administered, there was a dramatic drop in the number of cancer stem cells and little change in the animals’ normal cells. The cancer cells in the mice treated with the broccoli compound were also not able to produce new tumors, the findings showed.

Researchers got similar results when they used sulforaphane on human breast cancer cell cultures in the lab.

The study relied on higher concentrations of sulforaphane than can be ingested just by eating broccoli. The compound does come as a supplement, but its concentration in those capsules isn’t controlled or regulated. Still, the amount needed to make a difference is relatively small, according to Sun.

“Even though you can’t get enough from eating broccoli, the concentration is so low that it’s comparable to other chemotherapeutic agents,” he told AOL Health.

Because a clinical trial on patients hasn’t yet been done, researchers don’t recommend adding the broccoli extract supplement to one’s diet at this point. But if clinical findings confirm the animal lab results, Sun said they will be able to suggest taking sulforaphane to help prevent or treat cancer.

“If you eat a lot of broccoli, perhaps you cannot achieve that concentration,” he said. “I think it’s achievable for the extract and the broccoli sprouts, but that has to be tested also.”

Sun said the study results are “intriguing,” but warned they’re just a “starting point.”

“We consider the findings promising, but we’re still in the very early stage, so we’re cautious,” he said. “A lot of work has to be done to confirm all of those.”

Other current literature done at the University of Michigan has found that curcumin, found in the Indian spice tumeric, can also help block the growth of breast cancer stem cells.

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