Green Tea and Leukemia
Green tea and Leukemia is the subject of new ongoing research
Researching a type of cancer known as chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), a team from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minneapolis, found that high doses of green tea extract can have a positive effect.
Following up on previous promising research in laboratories, Drs. Shanafelt and Kay, performed studies on animal tissue and then human cells.
For centuries the benefits of green tea has been touted, including preventing cancer. Shanfelt exposed cancer cells in tubes to an extract from green tea - EGCG (epigallocatechin-gallate) with the result that most of the cells were eliminated.
Then a formal test was devised, giving capsules containing high doses of EGCG (400-2,000mg)to 33 patients with CLL. This is the most common subtype of leukemia in the US. These patients were in the early stages of the illness and the goal was to prevent the disease from progressing.
One third of patients experienced a reduced lymphocyte count, and the majority saw a 50% or greater decline in size of their lymph node size.
This showed that patients tolerate the high doses of EGCG, and also that many of them saw some degree of regression of their disease.
Although blood tests can help diagnose CCL early on, there is no cure for the disease and treatment requires letting it progress. About half of patients have an aggressive type that leads to death.
Researchers hope that EGCG can stabilise patients in the early stages, or perhaps improve the effectiveness of treatment when combined with other therapies.
The only side effect was a low grade nausea in some cases.
So green tea extract may give patients more time and the chance of slowing things down, which is no cure, but possibly of great benefit. A follow-up study is already underway.
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