Green tea may help against prostate cancer
December 3, 2004
Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist .The polyphenols in green tea could help to prevent the spread of
prostate cancer, according to new experiments.
Green tea has already been linked to various health benefits, such as cancer prevention. Now a team at the University of Wisconsin says that the polyphenols in green tea – a group of active constituents – appear to be important in blocking a molecular pathway that is important in cancer.
They looked at a mouse model of human prostate cancer and found that green tea polyphenols can control insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) – a molecule known to be important in cancer. It seems as if IGF-1 is important in the development of the blood supply to the tumor – so any compound which can block this would be, potentially, a useful anti-cancer drug.
Source: Cancer Research 1st December 2004
