Chinese experts find evidence that garlic may prevent cancer

BEIJING, Aug 8, 2005 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Chinese experts have recently found new evidence that garlic may help prevent cancer through study on stomach cancer samples.

According to a report of the Science and Technology Daily, Chinese experts found that garlic may restrain the multiplication of stomach cancer cells and cause the cancer cells to die.

The research was jointly conducted by experts from Beijing Genome Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Clinical Tumor Institute of Beijing University, and the Beijing Tumor Prevention and Treatment Research Institute.

The researchers also found that stomach cancer is caused by many factors including the framework of cell, energy metabolism, control of cell multiplication.

Cancers have topped the causes of all deaths in China. If not controlled, they will kill twice as many as the people in 20 years, warned an official with the Chinese Health Ministry recently.

Death toll caused by cancers have been increasing since the 1970s, when the number was 700,000. The numbers jumped to 1.17 million in the 1990s and 1.5 million in the early 21st century, said Kong Lingzhi, an official with the Department of Disease Control under the ministry.

Eight kinds of cancers including lung, stomach, liver cancers kill more than 80 percent of the cancer patients, which were listed as key cancers to curb in the 2004-2010 National Cancer Prevention and Control Program.