Anti-Cancer Mechanism of Green Tea Revealed

Anti-Cancer Mechanism of Green Tea Revealed

Anti-Cancer Mechanism of Green Tea Revealed

Mechanism of Green Tea and Human Growth Hormone

Lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA) is an enzyme that is elevated in several human cancers, including pancreatic cancer.  Wai-Nang Lee, MD, from the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute (LA BioMed; California, USA), and colleagues observe that epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), the active biologic constituent in green tea, changes the metabolism of pancreatic cancer cells by suppressing LDHA expression.

The researchers also found an enzyme inhibitor, oxamate, which is known to reduce LDHA activity, operated in the same manner: It also disrupted the pancreatic cancer cells metabolic system.

Anti-Cancer Mechanism of Green Tea Revealed

The study authors submit that: “These results suggest that phytochemical [epigallocatechin gallate] and LDHA inhibitor oxamate confer their anti-cancer activities by disrupting the balance of flux throughout the cellular metabolic network.”

Doctors have speculated for years on the possible benefits from drinking green tea. The ancient brew has been associated with just about everything healthy, from boosting the immune system to preventing and reversing chronic diseases.

Health studies on green tea, however, have been promising but not conclusive. But now doctors have better identified, at a cellular level, how green tea might prevent the spread of breast and prostate cancers.

Chemicals in green tea called polyphenols appear to inhibit two proteins that promote tumor cell growth and migration — namely, the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF).

This finding, based on an ongoing study of 40 women with a type of breast cancer that doesn’t respond to hormone therapy, was presented today (Oct. 18) at the 11th Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research in Anaheim, Calif. This same mechanism might be behind positive results seen among prostate cancer patients, also presented today by a separate team of researchers at the same conference.