Posted on 05/28/2009 8:57:47 PM PDT by Coleus
Clinic researchers are reporting positive results in early leukemia clinical trials using the chemical epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), an active ingredient in green tea. The trial determined that patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) can tolerate the chemical fairly well when high doses are administered in capsule form and that lymphocyte count was reduced in one-third of participants.
"We found not only that patients tolerated the green tea extract at very high doses, but that many of them saw regression to some degree of their chronic lymphocytic leukemia," says Tait Shanafelt, M.D., Mayo Clinic hematologist and lead author of the study. "The majority of individuals who entered the study with enlarged lymph nodes saw a 50 percent or greater decline in their lymph node size."
CLL is the most common subtype of leukemia in the United States. Currently it has no cure. Blood tests have enabled early diagnosis in many instances; however, treatment consists of watchful waiting until the disease progresses. Statistics show that about half of patients with early stage diseases have an aggressive form of CLL that leads to early death. Researchers hope that EGCG can stabilize CLL for early stage patients or perhaps improve the effectiveness of treatment when combined with other therapies.
The research has moved to the second phase of clinical testing in a follow-up trial -- already fully enrolled -- involving roughly the same number of patients. All will receive the highest dose administered from the previous trial.
These clinical studies began with tests of the green tea extract on cancer cells in the laboratory of Mayo hematologist Neil Kay, M.D., a co-author on this article. After laboratory research showed dramatic effectiveness in killing leukemia cells, the findings were applied to studies on animal tissues and then on human cells in the lab.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Green tea is magic.
let’s wait for the phase 3 dbl blind trials...
until then I will enjoy my Oregon Original Chai tea.
Thanks for posting this! My husband has CLL and is not doing well right now. I’m going to ask his hematologist if he can try this along with the transfusions, chemotherapy etc.
This is discouraging. I thought embryonic stem cell research was supposed to cure everything.
prayers for you and your hubby. i wonder if good ol black iced tea has that compound?
I’m doing my research now. Black tea does contain epigallocatechin gallate but in much lower quantities because of the fermentation process of black tea leaves.
We drink about a gallon of home-made iced tea a day in my house. I’m going to start adding some green tea to the black tea and see how that tastes. It can’t hurt.
theres also green tea ice cream (japanese restos
sometimes offer it fried teriyaki style).
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