A new study, run by Piyali Dasgupta, Ph.D., from the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine in Huntington, WV, seems to find that capsaicin, the spicy compound in chili peppers, can successfully stop lung cancer metastasis. This might mean that the compound has certain anti-cancer properties.
Lung cancer is “by far the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women” in the United States. The Society also estimate that 228,150 people will develop and 142,670 people will die from the condition in 2019. Most deaths occur as a result of the metastasizing, or spreading, to distant parts of the body.
New research suggests that there may be a nutritional compound that can hinder this process of metastasis. Capsaicin, which is the chemical compound that gives chili peppers their flavor, stopped lung cancer metastasis in rodents and cultured human cell lines.
