The human immune system is an amazing thing. At its most basic level, the immune system tries to remove things from your body that don’t belong there. That’s how it’s able to fight off infections and diseases. But some cancers have the ability to disguise themselves to keep the immune system from recognizing them. As a result, cancer cells continue to spread. Other cancers—including especially aggressive types of leukemia, melanoma, and prostate cancer—take a different approach, overloading the immune system and leaving it unable to do its job. But researchers at the University of Copenhagen have discovered that selenium, which is found in foods such as broccoli and garlic, may help fight those aggressive cancers.
“You can say that the stimulating molecules over-activate the immune system and cause it to collapse,” says Professor Søren Skov, the researcher who led the study. “We have now shown that certain selenium compounds… effectively block the special immunostimulatory molecule that plays a serious role for aggressive cancers.” Skov and his colleagues hope that their discovery could lead to better outcomes for patients suffering from those aggressive cancers. “If we can find ways to slow down the over-stimulation, we are on the right track,” he says. “The new results are yet another small step towards better cancer drugs with fewer adverse effects.”
You can find more information on this study here, and an abstract here.
