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Green Tea
and Ovarian Cancer
Ovarian cancer is a
particularly deadly form of cancer as it’s virtually symptomless in its
early stages. By the time the disease is detected, it’s usually in an
advanced stage and survival rates are not encouraging. But recent
studies have shown that drinking green tea may reduce the risk of
developing ovarian cancer in the first place and increase survival time
in those who do get the disease.
An epidemiologic study of
61,057 Swedish women ages 40 to 76 compared the tea consumption (black or green)
of those who developed ovarian cancer to those who did not develop the disease.
The women filled out a food frequency questionnaire that included their tea
drinking habits and were followed for an average of 15 years to see who would
develop the cancer. At the study’s end, the researchers found that the more tea
the women drank, the lower their risk of developing ovarian cancer.
Specifically, for each daily cup of tea consumed, the risk of ovarian cancer
dropped 18%.1
But what about women who
have already developed ovarian cancer? In a study reported in the
International Journal of Cancer, 254 women diagnosed with epithelial ovarian
cancer were interviewed about the frequency and amount of green tea they
consumed post-diagnosis. Three years later, follow-up interviews were conducted.
Of the green tea drinkers, 78% survived until the time of the follow-up
interview, compared with only 48% of the non-tea drinkers.2
Finally, a test of the
effect of green tea’s EGCg on ovarian cancer cells found that it induced the
death of these cells by increasing intracellular levels of hydrogen peroxide.3
EGCg also enhanced the cells’ susceptibility to cisplatin, one of the main
chemotherapeutic drugs used to target ovarian cancer. In other words, not only
did EGCg hasten the death of ovarian cancer cells, it made them more likely to
succumb to chemotherapy.
Women, take note!
1Larsson
SC, Wolk A. Tea consumption and ovarian cancer risk in a population-based
cohort. Arch Intern Med 2005;165(22):2683-86.
2Zhang
M, Lee AH, Binns CW, et al. Green tea consumption enhances survival of
epithelial ovarian cancer. Int J Cancer 2004;112(3):465-69.
3Chan
MM, Soprano KJ, Weinstein, K, Fong D. Epigallocatechin-3-gallate delivers
hydrogen peroxide to induce death of ovarian cancer cells and enhances their
cisplatin susceptibility. J Cell Physiol 2006;207(2):389-96.
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Nadine Taylor, M.S., R.D. presents
GreenTeaLibrary.com, the most
comprehensive collection of scientific information describing the
health benefits of green tea.
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