University of Southern Maine

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USM Researcher Looking to Prevent Cancer with Berries

Maine ‘Ripe’ for Neutraceutical Industry

July 21, 2008

We hear almost daily that we should eat more fish, berries and other colorful vegetables to decrease our cancer risk and improve health. Imagine being able to take a pill – a neutraceutical supplement – instead of eating serving upon serving of berries and vegetables.  That’s what University of Southern Maine Visiting Libra Scholar John Lechner is working on in USM’s Wise Laboratory of Environmental and Genetic Toxicology. Libra professorships are endowed by a gift of $5 million from the late Elizabeth B. Noyce to the University of Maine System.

Lechner is building on research he began at the Comprehensive Cancer Center of The Ohio State University.  There, he fed rats suffering from esophageal cancer a diet of five percent freeze-dried black raspberries, a berry commercially grown in Ohio, and observed a reduction in those cancers.  He also provided another group of cancer-bearing animals drinking water laced with red beet juice and observed cancer reduction.  At USM, he is feeding laboratory mice the beet juice water in the hope of finding that it will stop the animals from getting lung cancer.  Plans also are underway to investigate the benefits of compounds found in fish, and discussions have begun to start human trials that would attempt to reduce free radicals that negatively affect the health of diabetes patients.

Because it took a high percentage of berries in the diets of laboratory animals to show positive results, Lechner envisions a future where the healthful compounds now being discovered in berries, vegetables and fish are concentrated and delivered in pill, water or snack bar form.

He sees one of the first concrete applications of his research in a future supplement that would be given to heavy smokers when they quit.  During the first two years after quitting, ex-smokers are at a greater risk of developing cancer than if they hadn’t quit.  Putting them on a pill or water supplement during this two-year period might reduce the incidence of cancer in these patients. Lechner hopes that future human trials will prove his hypothesis.

Lechner envisions a major nutraceutical industry in Maine that would economically benefit not only researchers, but also growers and fishermen and lead to the manufacturing of these supplements.

Editor’s Note: John Lechner is available for interviews and can be reached at (207) 780-4746 (lab) or 510-691-6224 (cell). For help arranging an interview, call USM Public Affairs at the numbers listed above.

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