For years, scientists have thought that olive oil might help prevent breast cancer.Now they may have discovered why.In laboratory experiments, oleic acid, the main monounsaturated fatty acid in olive oil, suppressed one of the most important genes involved in breast cancer."This is the first molecular support for the Mediterranean diet,” said study author Javier Menendez, a research scientist with the Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Research Institute in Illinois. The report appears in the Jan. 10 issue of the Annals of Oncology.
