A traditional herbal tea may hold the key to
fighting breast cancer, claim scientists.
Extracts from the plant
known as virgin’s mantle, which is used as a medicinal tea in some countries,
can kill cancerous cells in the test tube, South Africa’s Daily Mail newspaper
reports.
The plant-based tea is
already drunk by women in rural Pakistan who have breast cancer, but
until now its use as a treatment has been regarded as folklore.
Research by scientists at Aston University, Birmingham, and Russells Hall Hospital, Dudley, suggests it contains
potent anti-cancer agents that act singly or in combination against the
proliferation of cancer cells.
Laboratory tests showed they
arrested the growth of cells within five hours of application and caused them
to die within 24 hours.
The plant, which has the
botanical name Fagonia cretica, is found in arid, desert regions of Pakistan, India, Africa and parts of Europe.
Prof. Helen Griffiths and
Prof. Amtul R Carmichael, who headed the study, found herbal tea made from the
extract of the plant destroys cancer cells but, unlike conventional
chemotherapy, treatment does not damage normal breast cells, thus reducing side
effects.
Reports from breast cancer
sufferers in Pakistan suggest the plant extract
does not trigger any serious side effects such as loss of hair, drop in blood
count or diarrhoea.
The research, published in
the science journal PloS One, found the plant extract had a novel mechanism
which could remedy defects in cell DNA that would normally resist
tumour growth.
An impaired DNA response not only allows
the cancer to flourish, it also inhibits the way chemotherapy works which reduces
its effectiveness. Professor Carmichael said a small hospital 100 miles north
of Lahore in Pakistan started using the herbal
tea 40 years ago to treat breast cancer patients.
She said, “It appears to
keep them in remission, although we can’t use the word cure at this stage.
“However, they live for a
long time without losing their hair or putting on a large amount of weight, or
experiencing other toxic side effects associated with chemotherapy, so we are
confident this extract has something to contribute.”
Virgin’s Mantle,
She said stringent safety
tests would be needed in developing a drug based on the extract. At present the
herbal tea is being used to treat Asians but there might be different effects
in Caucasian patients, she added.
Griffiths said more research is needed
to establish the role of the extract in cancer management, and it now needs to
be demonstrated that this extract is as effective in killing cancer cells
inside the body as it is within a laboratory.
She said the next steps are
to identify which element of the plant is responsible for killing the cancer
cells with a view to eventually running trials with cancer patients.
Dr. Caitlin Palframan,
policy manager at Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said, “Some of the most important
cancer-fighting drugs are originally derived from plants.
“As this research is at the
very earliest stage, we won’t know for quite some time whether drugs derived
from this plant will be effective in treating breast cancer but we look forward
to seeing any progress.
“We would advise women with
breast cancer who are considering using any herbal remedies to discuss this
with their doctor first as some may interfere with ongoing cancer treatment.”
Emma Pennery, clinical
director of Breast Cancer Care, said, “Much more research would be needed to
build on this small-scale laboratory work to date.”
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