Indian herb prevents cancer progress

CM NEWS – An Indian medicinal plant Acanthus ilicifolius shows encouraging results in preventing liver cancer cells from progressing, dubbed chemoprevention, according to a study.

What is chemoprevention? The aim of cancer chemoprevention is to circumvent the development and progression of malignant cells through the use of non-cytotoxic nutrients, herbal preparations/natural plant products, and/or pharmacological agents. Encouraging dietary intake with herbal supplements may therefore be an effective strategy to limit DNA lesions and organic injuries leading to cancers and other chronic degenerative diseases.

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Acanthus ilicifolius, popularly known as “Holly Mangrove”, is distributed widely throughout the mangroves of India, including Sunderbans in West Bengal, west coasts, and the Andamans, and in other Asian countries like Singhal, Burma, China, Thailand etc.

How has Acanthus ilicifolius been used to traditional medicines? The leaves of Acanthus ilicifolius are used to treat rheumatism, neuralgia and poison arrow wounds (Malaysia). It is widely believed among mangrove dwellers that chewing the leaves will protect against snake bite.

The pounded seeds of Acanthus ebracteatus are used to treat boils, the juice of leaves to prevent hair loss and the leaves themselves to ward off evil (Malay). Both species are also used to treat kidney stones.

The whole plant is boiled in fresh water, and the patient drinks the solution instead of water, half a glass at a time, until the signs and symptoms disappear (Thailand). Water extracted from the bark is used to treat colds and skin allergies. Ground fresh bark is used as an antiseptic.

Tea brewed from the leaves relieves pain and purifies the blood (widespread in both the Old and New World).

Liver cancer is the fifth most common cancer in the world with a poor prognosis. About three quarters of the cases of liver cancer are found in Southeast Asia, including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, India, and Japan. The frequency of liver cancer in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa is greater than 20 cases per 100,000 population. Moreover, recent data show the frequency of liver cancer in the U.S. overall is rising.

The study was done at the Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Jadavpur University, India. The research team, led by Dr Malay Chatterjee, investigated the primary chemopreventive mechanisms of Acanthus ilicifolius (老鼠簕 in Chinese) in an in vivo tumour-transplanted murine model.

The results showed the aqueous leaf extract (ALE) of the plant was substantially effective in preventing hepatic DNA alterations and sister-chromatid exchanges (a type of chromosomal damage) in tumour-bearing mice.

Cancerous mice treated with the ALE significantly reduced viable tumour cell count by 68.34% when compared to the control, and restored body and organ weights almost to the normal values.

The study further demonstrated that ALE treatment was able to limit liver metallothionein expression, a potential marker for cell proliferation, and lengthen the mean survival of animals to a significant extent. The findings suggest that Acanthus ilicifolius may be used as a potential chemoprotector against hepatic neoplasia.

The results obtained from this in vivo study seem interesting and encouraging. Lack of toxicity favours further preclinical evaluation of Acanthus ilicifolius in a defined chemical carcinogenesis model.

“Our data indicate that, ALE is beneficial in restoring haematological and hepatic histological profiles and in lengthening the survival of the animals against the proliferation of ascites tumour in vivo,” the researchers write.

Elucidation of its anticarcinogenic mechanisms of action at the intricate molecular circuits, and isolation and characterization of its active principles, will provide a better understanding of the anti-cancer/chemoprevention strategy of Acanthus ilicifolius.

“If these studies are found to be really functional, we will have the beginning of a new chemoprevention program with herbal supplements that could have the broadest implications for the well-being of society,” the researchers say.

Herbal sex remedy linked to cancer

Reuters, CanWest – Two men seeking to boost sexual performance and grow bigger muscles instead ended up with advanced prostate cancer after taking “herbal” supplements, US doctors said.

They said many supplements marketed as “safe” and “natural” could contain unknown and potentially dangerous ingredients, and noted that the US Food and Drug Administration has little authority to regulate them.

“Physicians need to ask their patients not only about the prescription drugs they may be taking, but — perhaps even more importantly — about the over-the-counter drugs andsupplements, which may have a profound impact on certain health conditions,” Claus Roehrborn, chairman of urology at the University of Texas Southwestern medical school, said yesterday.

Dr Roehrborn’s team became concerned about what it calls herbal/hormonal dietary supplements, or HHDSs, after two men developed aggressive prostate cancer within months of taking the same supplement.

For legal reasons the researchers won’t name the supplement, which was removed from the market, and say they have no direct proof that the product caused the highly suspiciousprostate cancers.

The team analysed the product and found it contained two hormones — testosterone and estradiol. When the product was tested on tumour cells in the lab, it fuelled the growth ofprostate cancer cells more potently than testosterone alone, the team reported in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.”We filed an adverse event report with the FDA, who issued a warning letter. The manufacturer responded by removing this HHDS product from the market,” the researchers wrote.

“Individuals use HHDS for self-improvement, failure or distrust of conventional medicine, and because they believe that these natural products are safe and drug-free.”

The researchers searched websites promoting such products and found they promised maintenance of a “youthful” heart, relief of stress, and improvements in stamina, energy, strength and virility.

The patients, a 67-year-old and a 51-year-old, have both survived but cancer has spread throughout their bodies.

“Unlike prescription and over-the-counter drugs, the law does not require nutritional supplements to undergo pre-market approval for safety and efficacy,” the researchers wrote, with manufacturers allowed to assume the sole responsibility.

“Thus, the current Food and Drug Administration regulatory system provides little oversight or assurance that HHDS will have predictable pharmacological effects or even that product labels provide accurate information to consumers.”

A leading Canadian urologist warns that men who take nutritional supplements advertised as having male hormones are “really playing with fire.”

“Many men are on androgen replacement therapy or some kind of male hormone replacement and there’s always been a concern this may stimulate the growth of prostate cancer cells,” says Dr. Laurence Klotz, chief of the division of urology at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Science Centre.

“It’s a very controversial question and the answer is still not clear.”

A separate study, this one the latest to look at the risk of hormone therapy for women, found that taking an estrogen-plus-progesterone combination for as little as three years significantly increases the risk of certain breast cancers.

It was thought only women who use these hormones for at least five years have an increase in breast cancer risk.

The study involved more 1,500 postmenopausal women, age 55 to 74, in western Washington. Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle found that women who used the combined hormone regimen had a three- to four-fold relative increased risk of lobular cancer, but only if they used the hormones for three or more years.

Lobular cancer accounts for about only 15 per cent of all invasive breast cancers. It’s hard to detect and its incidence soared 52 per cent in the U.S. between 1987 and 1999, according to the researchers.

“These findings are still of considerable public-health importance considering the estimated 57 million prescriptions for menopausal hormone therapy that continue to be filled in the United States,” lead author Dr. Christopher Li said in a release issued with the new study, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

Ginger eases nausea from cancer treatment Ginger eases nausea from cancer treatment

Ginger inhibits overian cancer cell growth

Reuters – Ginger, long used as a remedy for upset tummies, can help ease the nausea caused by cancer drugs, researchers reported.

They found the lowest doses of ginger worked best.

“Patients ask all the time what else they can do to relieve their symptoms,” Dr. Richard Schilsky, president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and a blood cancer specialist at the University of Chicago, said in an interview.

“Ginger has been used for thousands of years for all types of stomach problems.”

Dr. Julie Ryan and colleagues at the University of Rochester in New York tested 614 people with various cancers who were being treated with chemotherapy and standard anti-nausea medications.

They got either a placebo or one of three doses of powdered ginger in a capsule.

“All of the doses of ginger were effective in reducing nausea,” Schilsky said.

The lowest two doses — half a gram and one gram of powdered ginger — were more effective than 1.5 grams, Ryan’s team reported.

Ryan said it was not exactly clear how ginger helps relieve nausea in these patients. “There is other research that shows it is a potent anti-inflammatory agent in the gut,” she told reporters in a telephone briefing.

She said it might be possible to get the same effect by eating ginger cookies, depending on how much ginger is used.

Researchers find prostate cancer stem cell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Researchers have found a stem cell, a kind of master cell, that may cause at least some types of prostate cancer.

Their findings are only experimental — the stem cells were found in mice — but could explain at least some types of prostate cancer and eventually offer new ways to treat it, they reported on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

The findings also show a potential new source for prostate tumors — so-called luminal cells, which secrete various compounds used in the prostate.

“The role of stem cells in the development of prostate cancer has been a focus of speculation for many years,” Dr. Helen Rippon of Britain’s Prostate Cancer Charity said in a statement.

“Importantly, this new stem cell does not rely on androgens — the male sex hormones that control prostate growth — to survive and grow. This may give a clue as to why prostate cancer often becomes resistant to treatments designed to regulate these androgens in the later stages of the disease,” added Rippon, who was not involved in the research.

“This improved knowledge will also be a step forward in learning how we might help to prevent the disease from developing in men in the first place.”

Michael Shen of Columbia University Medical Center and colleagues named the new stem cells CARNs, for castration-resistant Nkx3.1-expressing cells.

They normally regenerate part of the tissue that lines the inside of the gland, which produces semen. But the cells can also form tumors if certain genes meant to stop out-of-control growth get turned off.

Shen said researchers had believed that tumors arise from a different layer of cells in the prostate, called basal cells.

“Previous research suggested that prostate cancer originates from basal stem cells, and that during cancer formation these cells differentiate into luminal cells,” Shen said in a statement. “Instead, CARNs may represent a luminal origin for prostate cancer.”

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men worldwide after lung cancer, killing 254,000 men a year globally.

(Writing by Maggie Fox; Editing by Philip Barbara)

Brain Cancer

What is brain cancer?

Brain cancer is a disease of the brain in which cancer cells (malignant) arise in the brain tissue. Cancer cells grow to form a mass of cancer tissue (tumor) that interferes with brain functions such as muscle control, sensation, memory, and other normal body functions. Tumors composed of cancer cells are called malignant tumors, and those composed of noncancerous cells are called benign tumors. Cancer cells that develop from brain tissue are called primary brain tumors while tumors that spread from other body sites to the brain are termed metastatic brain tumors. Statistics suggest that brain cancer occurs infrequently and is likely to develop in about 22,000 new people per year in 2009, with about 13,000 deaths as estimated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Not all brain tumors are alike, even if they arise from the same type of brain tissue. Tumors are assigned a grade depending on how the cells in the tumor appear microscopically. The grade also provides insight as to the cell’s growth rate. NCI lists the following grades:

• Grade I: The tissue is benign. The cells look nearly like normal brain cells, and they grow slowly.
• Grade II: The tissue is malignant. The cells look less like normal cells than do the cells in a grade I tumor.
• Grade III: The malignant tissue has cells that look very different from normal cells. The abnormal cells are actively growing (anaplastic).
• Grade IV: The malignant tissue has cells that look most abnormal and tend to grow quickly.

The most common primary brain tumors are usually named for the brain tissue type from which they originally developed. These are gliomas, meningiomas, pituitary adenomas, vestibular schwannomas, and primitive neuroectodermal tumors (medulloblastomas). Gliomas have several subtypes which include astrocytomas, oligodendrogliomas, ependymomas, and choroid plexus papillomas. When the grades are coupled with the tumor name, it gives doctors a better understanding about the severity of the brain cancer. For example, a grade III (anaplastic) glioma is an aggressive tumor, while an acoustic neuroma is a grade I benign tumor. However, even benign tumors can cause serious problems if they grow big enough to cause increased intracranial pressure or obstruct vascular structures or cerebrospinal fluid flow.

What is metastatic brain cancer?

Cancer cells that develop in a body organ such as the lung (primary cancer tissue type) can spread via the bloodstream or lymphatic system to other body organs such as the brain. Tumors formed by such cancer cells that spread (metastasize) to other organs are called metastatic tumors. Metastatic brain cancer is a mass of cells (tumor) that originated in another body organ and has spread into the brain tissue. Metastatic tumors in the brain are more common than primary brain tumors. They are usually named after the tissue or organ where the cancer first developed (for example, metastatic lung or breast cancer tumors in the brain, which are the most common types found).

What causes brain cancer?

Primary brain tumors arise from many types of brain tissue (for example, glial cells, astrocytes, and other brain cell types). Metastatic brain cancer is caused by the spread of cancer cells from a body organ to the brain. However, the causes for the change from normal cells to cancer cells in both metastatic and primary brain tumors are not fully understood. Data gathered by research scientists show that people with certain risk factors are more likely to develop brain cancer. Individuals with risk factors such as having a job in an oil refinery, as a chemist, embalmer, or rubber-industry worker show higher rates of brain cancer. Some families have several members with brain cancer, but heredity as a cause for brain tumors has not been proven. Other risk factors such as smoking, radiation exposure, and viral infection (HIV) have been suggested but not proven to cause brain cancer. There is no good evidence that brain cancer is contagious, caused by head trauma, or caused by cell phone use. Although many lay press and Web articles claim that aspartame (artificial sweetener) causes brain cancer, as of 2009, the FDA maintains that it does not cause brain cancer and base their findings on over 100 toxicological and clinical studies regarding the sweetener’s safety.