Common Food Preservative May Slow or Stop Tumor Growth

A common food preservative call nisin may slow or stop squamous cell head and neck cancers, according to a University of Michigan study. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) approved nisin as safe for human consumption decades ago, says Yvonne Kapila, the study’s principal investigator and professor at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry.

This means that obtaining FDA approval to test nisin’s suggested cancer-fighting properties on patients in a clinical setting won’t take as long as a new therapy that hasn’t been tried yet on people, she says. For more information, click here to read full release.