Green Tea, Fruit Extracts Touted as Potential CancerFighters

Green Tea, Fruit Extracts Touted as Potential CancerFighters
THURSDAY, Dec. 6 (HealthDay News) -- A gel derived from blackraspberries, a fruit beverage and old-fashioned green tea all holdpotential promise as ways to treat or prevent different types of cancer,preliminary research suggests.
"Until now, foods have not been considered good treatments for chronicillness, especially tackling tumors," Greg Jardine, a biochemist at Dr.Red Nutraceuticals in Australia, said at a teleconference Thursday. Infact, "foods can be medicine," added Jardine, co-author of amanufacturer-funded study of a "punch" that appeared to reduce the growthof prostate cancer in mice.
In addition to Jardine's study, two others -- one with people and onewith rats -- suggest that a black raspberry gel can reduce oral cancerlesions and green tea can prevent colorectal cancer.
The studies, which are all small and need further confirmation, werepresented at the American Association for Cancer Research's Sixth AnnualInternational Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, whichruns through Dec. 8 in Philadelphia.
Researchers at Ohio State University and the University of Kentucky areusing a gel made of extracts from black raspberries to treat oral lesions,which often begin as growths inside the mouth and threaten to turn intomajor tumors.
"About 36 percent will progress to oral squamous cell carcinoma, but,at this point, we don't have the molecular tools to determine which oneswill go on to malignancy," said Dr. Susan Mallery, a professor in theDepartment of Oral Maxillofacial Surgery and Pathology at Ohio StateUniversity's College of Dentistry.
About 7,500 people in the United States die each year of oral cancer,according to American Cancer Society statistics, and 34,000 new cases arediagnosed annually.
The researchers assigned 30 patients -- 20 with precancerous lesionsand 10 healthy patients -- to apply the gel several times a day. After sixweeks of treatment, the grade of the lesions decreased in 35 percent ofpatients, while it stayed steady in 45 percent of patients and grew in 20percent, Mallery said.
Patients whose tumors had progressed the least seemed to do the bestafter undergoing the gel treatment, Mallery said. None of the patientsreported side effects.
Why does the gel appear to work? According to Mallery, the activeagents appear to be "those chemicals that give it a very rich purplecolor." The study authors suspect that the chemicals may help "re-educate"tumor cells, reversing their march toward cancer.
In another study, Australian researchers -- funded by Dr. RedNutraceuticals, the maker of an antioxidant-boosted beverage called"Blueberry Punch" -- gave the drink to mice with tumors that wereconsidered equivalent to prostate cancer in humans.
The tumors were 25 percent smaller in eight mice that drank the punchfor two weeks, compared to eight mice that did not drink the punch.Jardine said the next step is to figure out if the punch would have abeneficial effect in men. The punch, designed to be a health aid, is soldin Australia and in New Zealand, and is made of fruit concentrates and avariety of extracts, as well as tarragon, turmeric and ginger, hesaid.
In the third study, researchers from Rutgers University in New Jerseyfed chemicals known as polyphenols from green tea to rats that hadcolorectal cancer. The polyphenols appeared to reduce the size of tumorsby 45 percent, the study authors said.
It's not clear if the polyphenols would have a similar benefit inhumans, and the equivalent amount of tea consumption in people would behefty -- four to six cups a day, the researchers said.
More information
To learn more about colorectal cancer, visit the U.S. National Institutes of Heath.