Eating More Soy Items, Legumes Can Cut Uterine Cancer Risk, Report Says

Eating more soy products, such as tofu and soy milk, or legumes can reduce the risk of cancer of the uterus, researchers reported Wednesday in the American Journal of Epidemiology. The report adds to a growing body of evidence that phytoestrogens--substances resembling human hormones that are found in plants--can be beneficial to health.

Marc Goodman and colleagues at the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii studied 332 women who contracted cancer of the uterus from 1985 to 1993. They compared them to more than 500 other women in Hawaii. They found that women who ate the most food rich in phytoestrogen, such as legumes and tofu, had a 54% lower risk of cancer of the uterus.