Green tea 'may negate effectiveness of cancer drug'

Green tea 'may negate effectiveness of cancer drug'

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 9:12 PM on 03rd February 2009


Avoid: Green tea might cancel out some cancer treatments

Cancer patients who take tumour-fighting green tea products may reduce the effectiveness of one kind of chemotherapy, research suggests.

Green tea contains a powerful antioxidant that can help to kill cancer cells and prevent tumours growing.

The drug bortezomib, marketed as Velcade, also works by inducing tumour cell death.

Researchers in the U.S. set out to see whether combining green tea extract and bortezomib might deliver a double blow to two types of cancer - multiple myeloma, which affects blood cells, and the malignant brain tumour glioblastoma.

But laboratory and animal experiments reported online in the journal Blood have shown that in fact the treatments cancelled each other out.

Instead of killing more cancer cells, the combination allowed nearly all of them to survive and multiply.

Dr Axel Schonthal, from the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, said that the results applied specifically to green tea products combined with Velcade.

He added: 'Green tea extract may actually improve the anti-cancer effects of other drugs.'

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1135355/Green-tea-negate-effectiveness-cancer-drug.html