Green Tea Polyphenol Sensitizes Breast Cancer Cells to Chemotherapy Agent
Posted Jan 15 2010 6:39am
While chemotherapy is an effective and important part of breast cancer treatmentbreast cancer cells often become resistant to the chemotherapy drugs. Because of thisthe discovery of agents that can re-sensitize breast cancer cells to chemotherapy is an active area of research.
Newly published breast cancer research examined the ability of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG)a bioactive phytochemical found in green teato sensitize breast cancer cells to the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel in cell culture and in a mouse model of breast cancer.
In the cell culture testthe study investigators treated three different breast cancer cell types with either EGCG alonepaclitaxel aloneor a combination of EGCG + paclitaxel. Compared with paclitaxel alonetreatment of breast cancer cells with the combination of EGCG + paclitaxel resulted in a dramatic decrease in cell viability and increase in programmed cell death.
For their mouse studythe researchers injected breast cancer cells under the skin of mice and allowed tumors to develop. After the tumors were large enough to feelthe mice were treated with either EGCG alonepaclitaxel aloneor a combination of EGCG + paclitaxel. At the amounts usedneither paclitaxel nor EGCG had much effect on preventing tumor growth. Howeverco-treatment with EGCG + paclitaxel substantially reduced tumor growth. This reduction in tumor growth appeared to be related to programmed cell death since the index used to measure cell death was greater with co-treatment (12%) compared to either treatment alone (1.8% for EGCG alone and 4.2% for paclitaxel alone).
These study results indicate that the main bioactive phytochemical in green teaEGCGis capable of sensitizing breast cancer cells to a standard chemotherapy drug. These results suggest that EGCG has the potential to improve the effectiveness of standard breast cancer chemotherapywhich is great news. The dose of EGCG used in this study was 30 mg/kg of body weight. For a 150-lb personthis would translate into about 2 grams of EGCG per day. While this would probably be difficult to obtain from drinking green teait could be more easily obtained in capsule form. Howeversmaller doses were not tested in this study and future studies might show that lower amounts might also be effective. Overallthis is more good news for green tea. In addition to the benefits shown in this studyother studies have shown that drinking green tea can reduce breast cancer risksomething I discussed in an earlier blog.
To learn about other foods that can help reduce your breast cancer riskread my book Fight Now: Eat & Live Proactively Against Breast Cancer at www.fightBCnow.com.
Newly published breast cancer research examined the ability of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG)a bioactive phytochemical found in green teato sensitize breast cancer cells to the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel in cell culture and in a mouse model of breast cancer.
In the cell culture testthe study investigators treated three different breast cancer cell types with either EGCG alonepaclitaxel aloneor a combination of EGCG + paclitaxel. Compared with paclitaxel alonetreatment of breast cancer cells with the combination of EGCG + paclitaxel resulted in a dramatic decrease in cell viability and increase in programmed cell death.
For their mouse studythe researchers injected breast cancer cells under the skin of mice and allowed tumors to develop. After the tumors were large enough to feelthe mice were treated with either EGCG alonepaclitaxel aloneor a combination of EGCG + paclitaxel. At the amounts usedneither paclitaxel nor EGCG had much effect on preventing tumor growth. Howeverco-treatment with EGCG + paclitaxel substantially reduced tumor growth. This reduction in tumor growth appeared to be related to programmed cell death since the index used to measure cell death was greater with co-treatment (12%) compared to either treatment alone (1.8% for EGCG alone and 4.2% for paclitaxel alone).
These study results indicate that the main bioactive phytochemical in green teaEGCGis capable of sensitizing breast cancer cells to a standard chemotherapy drug. These results suggest that EGCG has the potential to improve the effectiveness of standard breast cancer chemotherapywhich is great news. The dose of EGCG used in this study was 30 mg/kg of body weight. For a 150-lb personthis would translate into about 2 grams of EGCG per day. While this would probably be difficult to obtain from drinking green teait could be more easily obtained in capsule form. Howeversmaller doses were not tested in this study and future studies might show that lower amounts might also be effective. Overallthis is more good news for green tea. In addition to the benefits shown in this studyother studies have shown that drinking green tea can reduce breast cancer risksomething I discussed in an earlier blog.
To learn about other foods that can help reduce your breast cancer riskread my book Fight Now: Eat & Live Proactively Against Breast Cancer at www.fightBCnow.com.