By
Julie Tasso, Medical Tribune News Service
ORLANDO,
Fla. -- Green tea may protect people from colon cancer, according
to results of study presented here Monday at the Digestive Disease
Week meetings.
A
major component of green tea, a chemical called epigallocatechin
gallate (EGCG), has been shown in past animal experiments to protect
the body against cancer.
Dr. D.P. Chauhan of the University of California at San Diego
and his colleagues treated human colon cancer cells with various
concentrations of EGCG for 24 to 72 hours. They found that EGCG
stopped growth of the cells after the 48-hour and 72-hour treatments.
Furthermore, the cell death continued 10 days after the 72-hour
treatment -- that is, 10 days after the cells had last been exposed
to EGCG.
``Green
tea should be considered as a possible prevention against cancer,''
said Chauhan. ``Green tea is widely used and it is likely to be
safe and an acceptable form of prevention to many patients. We
still need to do more studies to determine the exact doses of
EGCG that are effective.''
Colon
cancers are very resistant to traditional treatments such as chemotherapy
and drugs. Those treatments also have some serious side-effects,
while green tea appears not to have any side effects, according
to Chauhan.
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