Effect of dietary supplementation of soybeans on experimental metastasis of melanoma cells in mice

The purpose of the present study was to determine the effect of dietary supplementation of soybean protein isolate (SPI) on experimental metastasis of B16BL6 murine melanoma cells in C57BL/6 mice. Four groups of mice were fed a basal AIN-93G diet or the basal diet supplemented with 10%, 15%, or 20% SPI for two weeks before and after the intravenous injection of 0.75 x 10(5) cells. At necropsy the number of tumors that developed in the lungs and their cross-sectional area were determined, and tumor volume was calculated. In the control group, 12 of the 15 mice had greater than or equal to 11 lung tumors. In contrast, only 3 or 4 of the 15 mice fed the SPI diets had greater than or equal to 11 tumors. The incidence of metastasis was 93%, 60%, 53%, and 53%, and the median number of lung tumors was 53, 2, 2, and 1 in mice fed the basal, 10%, 15%, and 20% SPI diets, respectively. Tumor cross-sectional area and tumor volume of SPI groups were significantly decreased compared with the controls. These results demonstrate that dietary supplementation of SPI reduced pulmonary metastasis of B16BL6 cells in mice and inhibited the growth of tumors that developed in the lungs. It is concluded that soybeans may be a useful adjuvant for preventing metastatic diseases in cancer patients.