A new study based on research in pregnant mice suggest that children born to mothers who eat large amounts of cruciferous vegetables during pregnancy may show more resistance to leukemia and lymphoma in their childhood and lung cancer in their adulthood.

In this study, researchers from the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University discovered that a phytochemical administered in pregnant mice, help protect baby mice from developing leukemia and lymphoma in their infancy and lung cancer during the animal’s later stage.

The study is published in the latest issue of the journal Carcinogenesis and demonstrates the significant role, prenatal and maternal diet may play in cancer prevention and cancer development. The dietary effect of either protecting or causing cancer may begin in the womb and last far into adulthood.

'There's strong epidemiologic evidence that infant cancers can be caused by exposure of the fetus to carcinogens, either during pregnancy or by nursing,' said David Williams, an LPI researcher and director of the Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Sciences Center at OSU.

A 2005 study conducted by the Environmental Working Group took umbilical cord blood samples from 10 babies and found 287 chemicals. Among the 287chemicals detected, 180 are known to cause cancer in humans and animals, according to the EWG.

Earlier researches have shown that pollutants in mothers’ blood such as PAHs, PCBs and dioxins, can be transmitted to the fetus through the placental barrier and during nursing.