Cancer, Interrupted: Green Tea

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM Enero 25th, 2013 Volumen 12

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Using the cooked meat carcinogen PhIP to turn normal breast cells cancerous, researchers explore the use of green tea to interrupt this malignant transformation.

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Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

More than 85% of breast cancers are sporadic, and attributable to long-term exposure to environmental carcinogens—such as those in the diet—through a multistep disease process progressing from non-cancerous to premalignant and malignant stages.

Now, we know that the chemical carcinogen, PhIP, is one of the most abundant heterocyclic amines found in high-temperature cooked meats, and is recognized as a breast carcinogen. However, the PhIP’s mechanism of action in breast cell carcinogenesis is not completely clear. How does it do it? Well, in this landmark new study they “demonstrated, for the first time, that cumulative exposures to PhIP” at the kind of concentrations one would expect just eating meat “effectively induced progressive carcinogenesis”—cancer transformation of normal “human breast…cells from a non-cancerous stage to premalignant and malignant stages in a dose- and exposure-dependent manner.”

They started out with normal human breast cells, and were able to transmute them completely into cancer cells just using that cooked meat carcinogen found predominantly in fried bacon, fish, and chicken. That’s all it took, and Jekyll becomes Hyde.

Now, PhIP was already established as a carcinogen. The reason they did this study was to develop a model of human breast cancer “carcinogenesis”—from beginning to end—so they could test various interventions to see if they could somehow stop this process of cancer formation.

For example, three recent meta-analyses reviewing all the epidemiological, or population-based, evidence concerning green tea consumption and breast cancer risk to date concluded that green tea consumption may be protective.

Okay, let’s put the plant to the test. Here’s how normal human breast cells rate against six different measures of cancer potential. Add some green tea to them, and nothing much happens. Add repeated exposure to the cooked meat carcinogen, PhIP, though, and all the cancer indicators go up. Okay, here’s the test. What happens if you now add the meat carcinogen with green tea phytonutrients? The transformation to breast cancer is blunted across the board, almost bringing cancer markers back to normal. Using a variety of measures, green tea phytonutrients were capable of suppressing PhIP-induced cellular cancer and tumor progression.

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Images thanks to たね via Wikimedia, and Annie Cavanagh via Wellcome Images

Nota del Doctor

What is this PhIP stuff? See four previous videos for some background:

Any other feats that green tea can pull off? See Treating Genital Warts with Green Tea, and Treating Gorlin Syndrome with Green Tea.

Might white tea work even better? See Antimutagenic Activity of Green vs. White Tea.

Any other plants that might be able to smack on the cancer kibosh? (I mean besides broccoli; so, for example: DNA Protection from Broccoli, and Broccoli vs. Breast Cancer Stem Cells). Stay tuned for my next video, Cancer, Interrupted: Garlic & Flavonoids.

Also check out my associated blog post for more context: Foods that May Block Cancer Formation.

If you haven’t yet, you can subscribe to my videos for free by clicking here.

PS: Those of you with mobile devices will have noticed immediately the major upgrade to NutritionFacts.org yesterday. The entire site was redesigned to incorporate “responsive web design.” This means that NutritionFacts.org will now automatically resize to fit whatever device you’re on. There are now close to 50 million people in the U.S. alone that watch videos on their mobile devices. Sure, we could make a special iPhone app, an iPad app, an Android app—but, there are now thousands of smartphones and tablets out there. Enter: responsive web design. NutritionFacts.org now automatically resizes to fit your screen—any screen! Try resizing your browser right now. See? Isn’t that cool?! Thanks go to our resident web designer genius, Christi Richards, and the generous support of The Jesse and Julie Rasch Foundation, without which NutritionFacts.org wouldn’t even exist.

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