Nutrition and the Prevention and Treatment of Cancer: Association of Cytochrome P450 CYP1B1 With the Role of Fruit and Fruit Extracts

Recommendations for a healthy or prudent diet include a large number of daily servings of fruits and vegetables, and these 2 classes of food are widely believed to assist in cancer prevention. One potential mechanism that is rarely mentioned in nutritional studies involves the cytochrome P450 enzyme CYP1B1, which appears to have the unique properties of being a universal cancer marker overexpressed in cancer cells and having the capability of converting various phytochemicals and synthetic chemicals into substances cytotoxic to these cells. Although these particular features of CYP1B1 have not gone unnoticed, there has been relatively little research aimed at exploiting them. Furthermore, therapeutic and preventive strategies currently being considered based on vaccines against the enzyme or inhibition without the generation of cytotoxins can be questioned because they do not take advantage of the unique properties of this enzyme. In addition, a few relevant case histories have been published that use specially designed fruit extracts containing substrates with demonstrated cytotoxic metabolic products, and these reports provide an initial confirmation of the potential of exploiting the unusual properties of this enzyme for cancer therapy.