A chemical found in green tea can fight two types of skin cancer cells, experts say.
Drinking the tea has no effect on cancer cells because the extract is too weak. However, when green tea extract is directly applied to cancer cells, the cells shrink or even disappear, according to news sources.
Scientists at the University of Strathclyde and the University of Glasgow found in their research that green tea extract has epigallocathechin gallate (EGCg), a chemical that fights cancer cells without any side effects on other cells or tissues. Thus, they created cells with EGCg and transferrin, a protein that latches to tumor cells, and applied the synthesized cells to tumor cells of either epidermoid carcinoma or melanoma.
Around 40 percent of the tumors disappeared in both studies, and 30 percent of carcinoma cells shrunk while 20 percent of melanoma cells shrunk.
Lead researcher Dr. Christine Dufes stated “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.”
From news reports
(
khnews@heraldcorp.com)
