It has been known for some time that the chlorophyll found in green vegetables can protect the body against some cancer-causing agents found in the environment. This much has been confirmed by a number of studies, the most recent such study out of Oregon State University, published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology.
However, researchers involved in that study found something alarming: while chlorophyll protects against modest levels of carcinogens found in the environment, it does something altogether different when coming into contact with very high concentrations of those some carcinogens: it causes more tumors to develop. In other words it appears to help the cancer spread, not prevent it from forming in the first place.
Another interesting aspect of this study is that instead of using lab rodents—long the standard in scientific research—Oregon State researchers used 12,360 rainbow trout as laboratory models instead, and they have been one of the pioneers in using rainbow trout instead of lab mice.
Trout are a much cheaper lab model than mice, which allows scientists to use more of them and get a better idea of their reaction to tests in biomedical research (they also react much the same as mice do).
The other alarming aspect of this study however is that it seems to undermine a basic tenet of research, which is to expose a lab rat to a specific compound at very high levels, observe what happens to it, and then, based on the results, make predictions about how a proportional amount of the same result would be observable at much lower levels of exposure.
You can see how this works if you performed the chlorophyll study with lab rats. Exposing them to very high levels of a carcinogen would result in tumor growth. Consequently, researchers would conclude that chlorophyll offers no anti-cancer protection, when it's well established that it does.
Source: OSU
