A compound found in green tea has been found to be a potentially potent weapon against cancer.
According to new research out of the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, the extract – known as epigallocatechin gallate – has been shown to have preventative anti-cancer properties but fails to reach tumors when delivered by conventional injections.
But in laboratory tests at Strathclyde, researchers who used an approach that allowed the treatment to be delivered to the tumors after IV administration found nearly two-thirds of the cancer cells shrank or disappeared within a month.
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What's more, the treatment displayed none of the side effects to normal tissues typically seen with conventional chemotherapy
"These are very encouraging results which we hope could pave the way for new and effective cancer treatments," said Dr. Christine Dufès, a senior lecturer at the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, who led the study, published in the journal Nanomedicine.
"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."
In the tests, on two different types of skin cancer, researchers reported 40 percent of both types of cancer cells vanished, while 30 percent of one and 20 percent of another shrank.
The researchers delivered the green tea extract in capsules that also contained transferrin, a plasma protein that transports iron through the blood. Receptors for transferrin are found in large amounts in many cancers.
SPECIAL: This Small Group of Doctors are Quietly Curing Cancer — Read More.