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Urine test suggests garlic as a possible cancer inhibitor

Category: Cancer Detection and Tumor Markers

According to a recent study, a newly developed urine test capable of measuring the extent of the carcinogenic process has suggested that garlic consumption may be associated with a decreased risk of cancer development.

"What we were after was developing a method where we could measure in urine two different compounds, one related to the risk for cancer, and the other, which indicates the extent of consumption of garlic," said study author Earl Harrison, an investigator at Ohio State University's Comprehensive Cancer Center.

In the study, researchers treated several groups with capsules containing varying levels of garlic. A separate group was given a placebo.

Harrison and his colleagues found that participants who had consumed garlic had lower concentrations of cancer-causing carcinogens and toxins than those in the control group. Additionally, the consumption of the highest quantities of garlic was associated with the lowest levels of carcinogen markers.

"Our results showed that those were inversely related to one another – meaning that the more we had the marker for garlic consumption, the less there was of the marker for the risk of cancer," concluded Harrison.

The researchers noted that the findings came from a small pilot study and need to be validated by additional human trials.