more good news about green tea

[Guest guest]

Mayo Clinic reported today that drinking green tea prevents leukemia and may

even CURE leukemia!

If anyone has more info on this, please post.

[Guest guest]

Apr 1, 2004 12:24 pm US/Eastern

(1010 WINS) (Rochester, Minnesota) Research at the Mayo Clinic shows that a

component in green tea helps kill cells of the nation's most common form of

leukemia.

The scientists say the green tea component - EGCG - helps kill the cancer

cells by cutting off the communication signals they need to survive.

The cells used in the study were from patients with B-cell chronic

lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL. It's most often diagnosed in patients in their

mid-to-late 60s - and currently, there is no cure.

The findings, reported in an early electronic article in the journal Blood,

show green tea's EGCG killed leukemia cells in eight of ten patient samples

tested.

Researchers say the green tea results are an excellent start in an effort to

find agents that will kill cancer cells and are nontoxic to the patient.

(© MMIV Infinity Broadcasting Corp. . This material may

not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated

Press contributed to this report. )

>From: Francesca Skelton <fskelton@...>

>Reply-

>support group < >

>Subject: [ ] more good news about green tea

>Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2004 11:54:31 -0500

>

>Mayo Clinic reported today that drinking green tea prevents leukemia and

>may

>even CURE leukemia!

>

>If anyone has more info on this, please post.

>

[Guest guest]

Mayo Clinic 01.04.2004

Mayo Clinic researchers discover green tea component helps kill leukemia

cells

Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered that a component in green tea helps

kill cells of the most common leukemia in the United States.

The research using laboratory cell cultures shows that a component of green

tea known as epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG)

[epi-gallo-cat-ekin-3-gal-ate] helps kill leukemia cells by interrupting the

communication signals they need to survive. The findings are reported in an

early electronic article in the journal Blood

(http://www.bloodjournal.org/cgi/reprint/2003-08-2763v1).

The leukemia cells studied were from patients with B-cell chronic

lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) -- most often diagnosed in patients in their

mid-to-late 60s. Currently, there is no cure for CLL, though chemotherapy is

administered in the most severe cases. The Mayo Clinic study, led by Neil E.

Kay, M.D., shows that green tea’s EGCG interrupted survival signals,

prompting leukemia cells to die in eight of 10 patient samples tested in the

laboratory.

Says Dr. Kay: " We’re continuing to look for therapeutic agents that are

nontoxic to the patient but kill cancer cells, and this finding with EGCG is

an excellent start. Understanding this mechanism and getting these positive

early results gives us a lot to work with in terms of offering patients with

this disease more effective, easily tolerated therapies earlier. "

About the Leukemia called CLL

CLL affects individuals differently in the pace at which it progresses. Some

patients may live with it for decades and not require treatment, while

others need immediate treatment, and some die within months despite therapy.

Because the course of the CLL is so individualistic and unpredictable,

physicians have historically adopted an attitude of " watchful waiting " with

early-stage CLL patients. This rationale -- to spare elderly patients

exposure to toxic chemotherapy -- has been challenged recently as new tests

have improved physicians’ ability to identify early stage patients who have

a more aggressive form of the cancer.

As a result, much CLL research is focused on identifying which initial-stage

patients should be treated earlier in the course of their disease -- the

topic of another recent article by Mayo Clinic researchers (Blood, Feb 2004;

103: 1202 - 1210.)

Significance of the Mayo Clinic Finding

The CLL characteristics make this finding even more important, as it

suggests a new, nontoxic treatment. First author Yean K. Lee comments, " With

these findings we may be able to pursue the idea of culling out early-stage

patients who have historically not been treated and perhaps use an

EGCG-based treatment. That’s our next step with our research. "

Mayo Clinic CLL researcher Tait D. Shanafelt, M.D., is likewise encouraged.

" Our research goal is to identify new treatments for CLL that have a

favorable side effect profile and can be used in patients with early stage

disease to prevent progression. I think we’re getting there. "

Why Green Tea?

Mayo Clinic researchers focused on green tea for at least three reasons.

One, since the 1970s, epidemiological studies of cancer have shown that in

parts of the world where green tea is consumed, the incidence of solid tumor

cancers such as breast, lung and gastrointestinal cancers is lower.

Secondly, mouse-model testing of green tea’s cancer-prevention properties

has shown they protect against solid tumors. And three, in the laboratory,

the EGCG component of green tea has been proven to induce death in cancer

cells from solid tumors.

The Mayo Clinic research suggests EGCG works by inhibiting a pathway in the

leukemia cells related to angiogenesis -- the complex process that maintains

nourishing blood flow to a biological structure, in this case a cancer cell.

More information: www.bloodjournal.org/cgi/reprint/2003-08-2763v1

www.mayo.edu/

>From: Francesca Skelton <fskelton@...>

>Reply-

>support group < >

>Subject: [ ] more good news about green tea

>Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2004 11:54:31 -0500

>

>Mayo Clinic reported today that drinking green tea prevents leukemia and

>may

>even CURE leukemia!

>

>If anyone has more info on this, please post.

>

[Guest guest]

All this good news about coffee and tea (both not so long ago thought to be

bad for your health) reminds me of the Woody movie where you wake up

in the future and find that fatty foods and hot fudge sundaes are really

GOOD for you........

Speaking of hot fudge sundaes, there's a recipe for a CRONIE hot fudge

sundae in the dessert file................

on 4/1/2004 1:22 PM, Dowling at dowlic@... wrote:

> Apr 1, 2004 12:24 pm US/Eastern

> (1010 WINS) (Rochester, Minnesota) Research at the Mayo Clinic shows that a

> component in green tea helps kill cells of the nation's most common form of

> leukemia.