Mayo Clinic says green tea may help fight leukemia

A study being done at Minnesota's Mayo Clinic is getting national attention even though it's still in its early stages.

It indicates that something many people drink for pleasure may help fight a certain cancer.

The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, showed that high doses of green tea extract reduced leukemia cells in study participants.

According to lead study author and hematologist, Dr. Tait Shanafelt, "Among the 33 patients who participated, a majority had a sustained reduction in their leukemia cell count and/or a 50% reduction in their enlarged lymph nodes infiltrated by the leukemia cells."

Researchers gave varying doses of a green tea compound called EGCG to 33 patients who all had a type of leukemia called CLL or chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Shanafelt says not only did a majority of study participants see a reduction in their leukemia cell count, the green tea extract, unlike chemotherapy, also had minimal side effects.

He says, "It would be a major step forward if we could find a pill based treatment that has very few side effects that could stabilize the disease and delay or prevent the need for chemotherapy."

There is no cure for CLL.

It can be diagnosed early and monitored until chemotherapy is necessary but because chemotherapy can have some tough side effects, being able to delay it by taking green tea extract to reduce cancer cells would be welcome.

Dr. Shanafelt says he does not see green tea as a cure.

Phase two of the study has begun with all 34 participants getting the highest dose.

By Renee Tessman, KARE 11 News

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