The “supertomato"
A team of researchers from Italy’s National Biomolecular Research Centre in Naples have created a “supertomato” to be called the “maxantia” which, they say, could help prevent prostrate and other cancers.
The scientists emphasise that the tomato is not genetically modified but a blend of San Marzano and black tomato varieties. The San Marzano tomato is already famed for its anti-inflammatory properties whilst the “black” tomato [which is really purple] contains a high percentage of cancer-fighting vitamin C and carotene lypocene.
According to the Head of the World Foundation of Urology, Mauro Dimitri, who launched Italy’s Prostrate Cancer Week on Tuesday, the new tomato could also help fight Parkinson’s disease, osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease.
The name “maxantia” has yet to be registered but growers in Campania are already cultivating the plant, whilst regional politicians have given their support to a commercial campaign to encourage pizza chefs in the region to use the “maxantia” tomato in their creations.
37,000 new cases of prostrate cancer are reported in men each year in Italy, ANSA reports.
Possible new bone cancer treatment for children
Another new discovery in the fight against cancer may lead to new treatments for children with the second most common type of infantile bone cancer, Ewing’s sarcoma. Scientists at the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute in Bologna, who have been working for four years with a team in Utah, USA and the National Tumour Institute in Milan, say that if a way of removing a cell protein called CD99 can be found, the disease could be arrested before it becomes malignant.
Katia Scotlandi, Head of the Institute’s Department for the Development of Biomolecular Therapy, was careful to point out that new treatments are not an immediate possibility but says she does believe that the discovery is a turning point.
