Red wine linked to suppression of breast cancer

Next time you see someone with a patch on their arm, don't assume they're kicking the smoking habit.

They may just be getting their daily dose of healthy benefits from red wine.

Holsten pharmaceutical company boasts "the only Red Wine Patch in the World." The patch delivers a potent dose of the antioxidant resveratrol - a quantity amounting to 444 times the dosage in a glass of red wine.

Resveratrol is a chemical found in red wine and the skin of grapes that is thought to possess various health benefits, including an ability to suppress the development of breast cancer, according to researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

The team of six researchers spent six weeks investigating the effects resveratrol has on human breast tissue cells. During the study, the cells were transformed from healthy to malignant, or harmful, using certain estrogens thought to lead to breast cancer.

With resveratrol, the team was able to "inhibit the formation of estrogen-DNA adducts," explained Eleanor Rogan, the UNMC researcher who led the study.

This achievment is the first in a series of steps to prevent breast cancer, which is expected to kill 40,480 women this year alone, according to the American Cancer Society.

"We think that resveratrol is a good agent that may be able to prevent the start of breast cancer," Rogan said.

But wine lovers beware: The study was conducted using solely resveratrol - no alcohol was involved, and Rogan is not convinced the resveratrol in red wine would be beneficial in warding off potential cancers.

"There are a couple of problems with getting resveratrol from red wine," Rogan warned.

For starters, the level of the chemical present from one batch of wine to the next is very inconsistent - some contain much stronger doses than others.

Secondly, Rogan said the relatively low concentration of resveratrol in the beverage is likely not enough to earn the drinker much of a benefit "unless you drink a lot of red wine."

In fact, drinking enough red wine to receive the benefit of resveratrol may have a reverse effect in terms of the bigger health picture.

Alcohol is hypothesized to hinder the metabolism of estrogen, which can build up in the breast and may eventually cause cancer. These negative effects have even been found in study subjects who drink in low to moderate amounts of wine.

In a study conducted by Jasmine Lew, a medical student at the University of Chicago, the alcohol habits of over 184,000 postmenopausal women were observed for seven years. The results are dismal for liquor and wine connoisseurs alike: Even one drink of alcohol a day can increase a woman's risk for breast cancer upward of 20 percent, according to the study.

However, Kenneth Cowan, director of UNMC's Eppley Cancer Center, views moderate drinking differently.

Cowan said he believes moderate intake of alcohol does not play a significant role in the development of breast cancer, nor in most types of cancer.

What is more important, he said, is paying attention to factors that are more common agents in causing the disease, such as family history, weight and hormones.

His advice to women who are worried about breast cancer: Live a healthy lifestyle, which includes eating right and exercising, rather than agonizing over the effects of two glasses of wine.

"The reality of it is, an average modest intake dosage may be up to a couple glasses of wine a day," Cowan said. "There is not a lot of data that proves there is harmful effects of it."

teresalostroh@dailynebraskan.com