Can depleting Copper starve breast cancer?

Huh.  It sounds like it's something that they are considering as part of active treatment once you have cancer, but not something that is going to prevent cancer from developing.  Interesting.

Very interesting stuff, Peacestrength. I've been reading some studies about how certain plant phytochemicals that normally function as antioxidants (resveratrol, nigella sativa) will switch to pro-oxidants in the presence of copper ions. Acting as pro-oxidants, they generate reactive oxygen species, causing cell death in cancer cells, rather than normal cells. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23744360

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20119749

But copper chelation is thought to work by stopping angiogenesis and also by increasing oxidative stress in cancer cells? I'm confused (common event). Here's a study about copper chelation that says, "We hypothesize that copper chelation therapy: increases oxidative stress in cancer cells to a level that does not allow survival because of the reduction of anti-oxidative enzymes production." But the same articles also says, "However, copper chelation therapy may enhance angiogenesis through reduction of thrombospondin-1, that results into an increase in VEGF-VEGFR2 complexes and a high level of active MMP-9."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24210000

So, normally you would want to maximize antioxidants in your diet to reduce ROS that cause DNA damage in normal cells, but when cancer cells are in an anaerobic state, ROS will kill them (as with radiation)? And you can generate ROS using phytochemicals that act with copper ions, or you can generate ROS by getting rid of copper? 

Here's an overview article on copper-based treatments http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19626597

And here's a good article on copper chelation. "Using copper chelators, researchers demonstrated that production of many cellular growth factors, interleukins, and pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha, are affected by copper. Reduction of intracellular copper leads to a decrease of these growth factors, interleukins, and cytokines. These copper-regulated molecules are involved in multiple physiological functions, such as tissue growth, angiogenesis, and inflammation.

 http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/fw08/copper.html

Also, "Bioavailable copper modulates oxidative phosphorylation and growth of tumors"

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24218578 Interestingly, in this last study done with mice, reducing CU was effective in both the early and late stages of cancer development: "These data demonstrate that systemic reduction in copper levels reduces proliferation of cancer cells in incipient neoplasias and late-stage tumors, delays the onset of tumor angiogenesis (the angiogenic switch) in the premalignant lesions, and impairs late-stage tumor growth."