Green tea could protect against pancreatic cancer

 

Green tea has already been shown to protect against cancer but now new research published in medical journal Metabolomics has revealed how the antioxidants in the tea actually work to stop cancer cells.

Researchers used an extract of green tea, called epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), to try to and determine what effect it had on pancreatic cancer cells. They already knew that the substance found in green tea and in smaller quantities in other types of tea such as black tea, helps prevent cancer but they didn’t know how it did it.

They found that the EGCG prevented the activity of a particular enzyme, called lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA), which is associated with cancer. By disrupting the process of the LDHA, the green tea extract prevents cancer cells from metabolising, ie the process by which they gain and use energy, growing, spreading and developing.

This is an exciting finding because it means cancer could potentially be prevented without damaging other molecules, focusing only on the metabolisis of the cancer cells. "By explaining how green tea's active component could prevent cancer, this study will open the door to a whole new area of cancer research and help us understand how other foods can prevent cancer or slow the growth of cancerous cells," says Dr Wai-Nang Lee, study author.