Mental Health

Green Tea Compound Could Help in the Fight Against Cancer

By Staff Reporter | Update Date: Aug 22, 2012 10:12 AM EDT

Scottish researchers have found that a compound found in green tea could help in treatments for tackling cancer.

Researchers said the epigallocatechin gallate extract has been known to have preventative anti-cancer properties but fails to reach tumors when delivered by conventional intravenous administration.

The research paper has been published in the journal Nanomedicine.

In initial laboratory tests, researchers used an approach which allowed the treatment to be delivered specifically to the tumors after intravenous administration. 

Nearly two-thirds of the tumors it was delivered to either shrank or disappeared within one month and the treatment displayed no side effects to normal tissues.

Researchers said this may be the first time that this type of treatment has made cancerous tumors shrink or vanish.

In the tests, on two different types of skin cancer, 40 percent of both types of tumor vanished, while 30 percent of one and 20 percent of another shrank. A further 10% of one of the types were stabilized.

The researchers captured the green tea extract in vesicles that also carried transferrin, a plasma protein which transports iron through the blood. Receptors for transferrin are found in large amounts in many cancers.

Christine Dufès led the research and she said These are very encouraging results which they hope could pave the way for new and effective cancer treatments.

"When we used our method, the green tea extract reduced the size of many of the tumors every day, in some cases removing them altogether. By contrast, the extract had no effect at all when it was delivered by other means, as every one of these tumors continued to grow," Dufès said. "This research could open doors to new treatments for what is still one of the biggest killer diseases in many countries."

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