Soy Appears Safe for Breast Cancer Survivors

Dec. 8, 2009 -- Moderate intake of soy foods by breast cancer survivors
appears to be not only safe but beneficial, according to a new study.
''Women who had a higher soy intake had a lower mortality and lower risk of
relapse [than women with a low intake]," says researcher Xiao Ou Shu, MD, PhD,
professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center
in Nashville, Tenn.
Previous research has yielded conflicting findings, with some studies
finding that soy foods reduce breast cancer risk but others finding that
genistein, an estrogen-like compound known as an isoflavone in soy, helps
breast cancer cells grow in the lab and promotes tumor growth in animals.
"Some papers say it's safe for women [with breast cancer] to eat some form
of soy, others say [these] women should be cautious," Shu tells WebMD. Her
findings, she says, should be reassuring to breast cancer survivors.
But the new study isn't the final word, says an expert who co-authored an
editorial accompanying the study, both published in the Journal of the
American Medical Association. She cites a relatively short follow-up of
four years, along with differences in soy consumption habits of women in the
U.S. and women in the study, who were from China.




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