Unlocking The Olive's Secret

Health experts have told us for years that the Mediterranean diet, and olive oil in particular, could help us live longer by reducing the risk of cancer and other diseases. Now a team from Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago appears to have identified precisely how olive oil helps fight one of the deadliest scourges: breast cancer.

The researchers tested the effect of oleic acid — a monounsaturated fatty acid found principally in olive oil — on breast cancer cells. Their findings, published online by the Annals of Oncology, show that oleic acid cuts levels of...