An apple a day keeps the doctor away, as the old saying goes.

According to researchers at Cornell University, this adage may be particularly apt when applied to breast cancer patients.

Rui Hai Liu, associate professor of food science at the university, has conducted six separate studies on the benefits of apples – and similar fruits and vegetables – on breast cancer tumors.

For example, in one study conducted among laboratory rats, fresh apple extracts were shown to inhibit the size of breast tumors.

“We not only observed that the treated animals had fewer tumors, but the tumors were smaller, less malignant and grew more slowly compared with the tumors in the untreated rats,” Liu explained.

A more recent investigation showed that regular doses of apple extracts helped reduce the incidence of a highly malignant tumor in rodents. The higher the dose, the less likely the animal was to develop a tumor.

The phytochemicals that apples contain have been linked to a reduced risk of developing cancer, osteoporosis, heart disease, stroke and vision problems.