Black Raspberries May Protect Against Esophageal Cancer (Barrett’s esophagus)

In a research on animal models, black raspberries have been shown to protect against esophageal cancer by reducing oxidative stress in patients with Barrett’s esophagus (BE), a precancerous condition that usually arises due to gastroesophageal reflux disease.

According to Kresty, research using animal models of BE showed that black raspberries inhibited chemically induced oral, esophageal and colon cancers. The studies showed that berries reduced measures of oxidative stress (the destruction done to cells by oxygen ions or small reactive molecules containing oxygen), decreased DNA damage, inhibited cellular proliferation rates, and reduced the number of pre-cancerous cells in the esophagus and colon.

“We can give black raspberries before we have any initiated cells, or we can administer after we already know we have initiated cells,” Kresty said. “What’s promising about the berries is that they work in both cases, and in multiple models. There aren’t nearly as many agents that work in the latter scenario.”

This study has been presented during the American Association for Cancer Research’s Sixth Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention.

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