Health

Green Tea Saves the Boobs!

Its phytochemicals kill breast cancer cells

By Stefan Anitei, Science Editor

13th of December 2007, 19:07 GMT

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This not only hits hard a woman's femininity, but in the western world it is also the most widespread cancer in women, touching about 30% of them. About 2.7% of the breast cancer patients die annually and 20% in the next 5 years after being diagnosed.

But now the secret of healthy breasts of the Oriental women seems to be revealed: a team led by Dr. Radha Maheshwari, professor of Pathology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) and Rajesh Loganathan Thangapazham, a graduate student, has revealed in a study published in the Journal of Cancer Biology and Therapy that green tea has antitumor effect in breast cancer cells.

Cancer starts with cell proliferations forming a lump (tumor). Benign tumors are relatively not harmful but the malignant ones are invasive, spreading to other parts of the body and developing new tumors. They travel through cells carried by blood and lymph to healthy organs or tissues anywhere in the body. This phenomenon is called metastasis and is the deadly end of the disease.

Chemoprevention involves the use of chemicals, natural or synthetic, to stop this development.

The new research shows that green tea can limit the invading capacity of malignant breast cancer cells through its polyphenols and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), which induce a programmed death in the cancer cells (apoptosis). EGCG induced a 24-28% reduction in invasion and polyphenols a 15-23% decrease, depending on the dose administered.

This could be one of the explanations why epidemiological research revealed a lower incidence of breast cancer in green tea consuming Asian countries compared to European countries. The phytochemicals extracted from the green tea could be combined with chemotherapy for ensuring a complete success against breast cancer.

A research published earlier by the same group showed that green tea can delay tumor emergence and lower the size of the existing ones, by inhibiting their growth and inducing cell death.

TAGS:

tea | breast | cancer

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