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Green
Tea Extract shows promise in Leukemia Trials
Newswise — Mayo Clinic researchers are
reporting positive results in early leukemia
clinical trials using the chemical
epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), an active
ingredient in green tea.
The trial determined that patients with
chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) can
tolerate the chemical fairly well when high
doses are administered in capsule form and
that lymphocyte count was reduced in
one-third of participants. The findings
appear today online in the Journal of
Clinical Oncology.
“We found not only that patients tolerated
the green tea extract at very high doses,
but that many of them saw regression to some
degree of their chronic lymphocytic
leukemia,” says Tait Shanafelt, M.D., Mayo
Clinic hematologist and lead author of the
study.
“The majority of individuals who entered the
study with enlarged lymph nodes saw a 50
percent or greater decline in their lymph
node size.”
CLL is the most common subtype of leukemia
in the United States. Currently it has no
cure. Blood tests have enabled early
diagnosis in many instances; however,
treatment consists of watchful waiting until
the disease progresses.
Statistics show that about half of patients
with early stage diseases have an aggressive
form of CLL that leads to early death.
Researchers hope that EGCG can stabilize CLL
for early stage patients or perhaps improve
the effectiveness of treatment when combined
with other therapies.
The research has moved to the second phase
of clinical testing in a follow-up trial --
already fully enrolled -- involving roughly
the same number of patients.
All will receive the highest dose
administered from the previous trial.
These clinical studies are the latest steps
in a multiyear bench-to-bedside project that
began with tests of the green tea extract on
cancer cells in the laboratory of Mayo
hematologist Neil Kay, M.D., a co-author on
this article.
After laboratory research showed dramatic
effectiveness in killing leukemia cells, the
findings were applied to studies on animal
tissues and then on human cells in the lab.
(See “Green Tea and Leukemia” in Discovery’s
Edge magazine.)
In the first clinical trial, 33 patients
received variations of eight different oral
doses of Polyphenon E, a proprietary
compound whose primary active ingredient is
EGCG.
Doses ranged from 400 milligrams (mg) to
2,000 mg administered twice a day.
Researchers determined that they had not
reached a maximum tolerated dose, even at
2,000 mg twice per day.
The study was sponsored by Mayo Clinic, the
CLL Global Research Foundation, CLL Topics
(including contributions by individual CLL
patients) and the Commonwealth Foundation
for Cancer Research.
Medication for the study was provided by
Polyphenon E International.
Others on the research team were Timothy
Call, M.D.; Clive Zent, M.D.; Betsy LaPlant;
Deborah Bowen; Michelle Roos; Charla Secreto;
Asish Ghosh, Ph.D.; Brian Kabat; Diane
Jelinek, Ph.D.; and Charles Erlichman, M.D.,
all of Mayo Clinic; and Mao-Jung Lee, Ph.D.,
and Chung Yang, Ph.D., both of Rutgers
University.
About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is the first and largest
integrated, not-for-profit group practice in
the world. Doctors from every medical
specialty work together to care for
patients, joined by common systems and a
philosophy of “the needs of the patient come
first.”
More than 3,300 physicians, scientists and
researchers and 46,000 allied health staff
work at Mayo Clinic, which has sites in
Rochester, Minn., Jacksonville, Fla., and
Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz.
Collectively, the three locations treat more
than half a million people each year. To
obtain the latest news releases from Mayo
Clinic, go to
www.mayoclinic.org/news.
MayoClinic.com (www.mayoclinic.com)
is available as a resource for your health
stories. For more on Mayo Clinic research,
go to
www.mayo.edu.
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