CHEMO AND CRANBERRY JUICE
For women who are having their first chemo that uses one of the carboplatin infusions they might be interested in the following that I copied off the web:
Ovarian cancer is the seventh most common cancer in the United States and the fifth leading cause of cancer death among American women, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Chemotherapy treatment commonly centers on so-called "platinum drugs", such as cisplatin and paraplatin. However, many women develop therapeutic resistance, necessitating the use of ever-higher doses that in turn raise the risk for both nerve damage and kidney failure.
To assess cranberries' ability to alleviate this problem, Singh and Rutgers colleagues Dr. Laurent Brard and Rakesh K. Singh teamed up with K.S. Satyan of the Molecular Therapeutics Laboratory at Brown Medical School's Women and Infants Hospital.
With funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the authors collected ovarian cancer cells from patients experiencing platinum drug resistance. They then exposed some of the cells to a purified extract drawn from a store-bought cranberry drink that contained 27 percent pure juice. Doses varied, reaching a maximum of about one cup of juice.
All the cancer cells were subsequently treated with paraplatin chemotherapy.
The result: Cells pre-treated with the juice extract were killed at a rate that was equal to six times that of cells unexposed to cranberry components.
In addition, the juice appeared to slow both the growth and spread of some cancer cells.
It's not yet clear how cranberry juice might kill ovarian cancer cells, the researchers said, although an antioxidant unique to cranberries -- the "A-type" proanthocyanidins -- could be key.
This specific antioxidant is not present in other fruits and appears to bind with -- and block the activity of -- tumor proteins found in ovarian cancer cells, increasing their sensitivity to chemo.
Singh cautioned that it remains to be seen whether the cranberry-chemo effect can be repeated outside a lab setting. Testing in mice and rats is about to begin, followed by human trials, the scientist said.
For women who are having their first chemo that uses one of the carboplatin infusions they might be interested in the following that I copied off the web:
Ovarian cancer is the seventh most common cancer in the United States and the fifth leading cause of cancer death among American women, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Chemotherapy treatment commonly centers on so-called "platinum drugs", such as cisplatin and paraplatin. However, many women develop therapeutic resistance, necessitating the use of ever-higher doses that in turn raise the risk for both nerve damage and kidney failure.
To assess cranberries' ability to alleviate this problem, Singh and Rutgers colleagues Dr. Laurent Brard and Rakesh K. Singh teamed up with K.S. Satyan of the Molecular Therapeutics Laboratory at Brown Medical School's Women and Infants Hospital.
With funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the authors collected ovarian cancer cells from patients experiencing platinum drug resistance. They then exposed some of the cells to a purified extract drawn from a store-bought cranberry drink that contained 27 percent pure juice. Doses varied, reaching a maximum of about one cup of juice.
All the cancer cells were subsequently treated with paraplatin chemotherapy.
The result: Cells pre-treated with the juice extract were killed at a rate that was equal to six times that of cells unexposed to cranberry components.
In addition, the juice appeared to slow both the growth and spread of some cancer cells.
It's not yet clear how cranberry juice might kill ovarian cancer cells, the researchers said, although an antioxidant unique to cranberries -- the "A-type" proanthocyanidins -- could be key.
This specific antioxidant is not present in other fruits and appears to bind with -- and block the activity of -- tumor proteins found in ovarian cancer cells, increasing their sensitivity to chemo.
Singh cautioned that it remains to be seen whether the cranberry-chemo effect can be repeated outside a lab setting. Testing in mice and rats is about to begin, followed by human trials, the scientist said.
posted by Dr. Rodenberger at 5:09 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home