Common Spices Can Stop Cancer

Ginger can kill ovarian cancer cells and hot peppers can shrink pancreatic tumors, researchers stated in a conference on Tuesday.

The studies add some considerable evidence to the fact that some "popular spices" can slow down and even prevent the growth of cancer. The team of researchers from the University of Michigan dissolved ginger powder and applied it onto ovarian cancer cells in a laboratory.

The spice caused apoptosis - "cell's suicide", and autophagy - "cells digesting or attacking themselves". Ginger has also been shown to prevent inflammation which otherwise would contribute to the development of ovarian cancer cells.

"Most ovarian cancer patients develop recurrent disease that eventually becomes resistant to standard chemotherapy, which is associated with resistance to apoptosis. If ginger can cause autophagic cell death in addition to apoptosis, it may circumvent resistance to conventional chemotherapy," study author Dr. J. Rebecca Liu.

According to the American Cancer Society, ovarian cancer kills 16,000 women from 22,000 diagnosed annually in the U.S. Also, it was previously shown by a team of researchers from the University of Pittsburgh that capsaicin, the ingredient in peppers which makes them hot, caused apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cells.

Pancreatic cancer is fatal, killing 31,000 from 32,000 individuals who will be diagnosed this year. Still, most of the experiments were conducted on mice, so experts warn that many compounds shown to stop cancer in the case of mice, are not nearly as effective in the case of human cancer patients.