A pilot study of soy and breast cancer patients Jianyu Rao, David Heber, Debbie Wu, Liping Zhang, Maryam R. Sartippour, Raymond S. Maul, Mai N. Brooks. UCLA, Los Angeles, CA; UCLA, Los Angles, CA. Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women. Soy at vastly variable doses is already commonly consumed in this population of patients. Given the recent controversy generated by in vitro and in vivo animal data that soy may under certain conditions stimulate breast cancer growth, it is crucial to study whether soy administration has any effect on breast cancer in actual human subjects. We therefore set out to determine the effect of short term soy administration on early stage breast cancer patients. Multiple breast cancer markers were evaluated on the core needle biopsy specimens and then compared to those obtained from the surgical excision specimens, in each individual patient. During the 2-3 week period between core biopsy and surgery, control subjects did not receive soy, whereas experimental subjects were given 200 mg soy isoflavone tablets daily. Based on the data generated from 9 experimental subjects and 12 control subjects so far, we observed no difference in DNA ploidy (index and S-phase), mitotic rate, hormone receptor expression (estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor), and oncogene status (Her-2 and p53). However, there appears to be a beneficial effect of soy ingestion as manifested by an increase in apoptosis (defined as an increase in the apoptotic index of greater than 5/high power field) in 3/9 (33%) soy patients, in comparison to 2/12 (17%) control subjects. We conclude that further clinical studies should be carried out before any definitive statements can be issued regarding the safety of soy administration in breast cancer patients. AACR Abstract Number: 3916 2003 Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.