What happens when mice with breast cancer eat sesame seeds while taking tamoxifen?
Lignan-rich sesame seed negates the tumor-inhibitory effect of tamoxifen but maintains bone health in a postmenopausal athymic mouse model with estrogen-responsive breast tumors
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Mice with breast tumors that ate sesame seeds didn't get help from the seeds to fight cancer. The seeds made tamoxifen less effective at shrinking tumors. But the seeds and tamoxifen together made the bones stronger than either one alone.
Surprising Findings
Sesame seeds made tamoxifen less effective at shrinking tumors, despite having similar lignans to flaxseed—which enhances tamoxifen.
Flaxseed, also high in lignans, has been shown to boost tamoxifen’s anticancer effects. The fact that sesame seed does the opposite is counterintuitive and suggests not all lignan sources act the same.
Practical Takeaways
Women undergoing tamoxifen treatment for breast cancer may want to discuss sesame seed intake with their doctor, especially if consuming large amounts.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Mice with breast tumors that ate sesame seeds didn't get help from the seeds to fight cancer. The seeds made tamoxifen less effective at shrinking tumors. But the seeds and tamoxifen together made the bones stronger than either one alone.
Surprising Findings
Sesame seeds made tamoxifen less effective at shrinking tumors, despite having similar lignans to flaxseed—which enhances tamoxifen.
Flaxseed, also high in lignans, has been shown to boost tamoxifen’s anticancer effects. The fact that sesame seed does the opposite is counterintuitive and suggests not all lignan sources act the same.
Practical Takeaways
Women undergoing tamoxifen treatment for breast cancer may want to discuss sesame seed intake with their doctor, especially if consuming large amounts.
Publication
Journal
Menopause
Year
2007
Authors
S. Sacco, Jianmin Chen, Krista A Power, W. Ward, L. Thompson
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Claims (4)
Sesame seeds might help your body process estrogen in a safer way, making more of the good kinds and less of the bad kinds that could cause problems.
In mice without ovaries that have a type of breast cancer that responds to estrogen, eating a diet with 10% sesame seeds doesn’t help shrink tumors or stop them from growing — it’s about the same as not getting any treatment.
In mice that mimic postmenopausal women, eating sesame seeds and taking tamoxifen together helps bones get stronger better than either one alone.
In mice with breast tumors that respond to estrogen, eating sesame seeds seems to block how well the breast cancer drug tamoxifen works, making tumors grow more than they do with the drug alone.