Cancer Cure May Lie In Thistle Drug

Published: July 3, 2006 | 4371st good news item since 2003

A study by scientists at University of Colorado, Denver, looks forward to a drug derived from milk thistle which may help treat cancers in future. In their investigation the drug called Silibinin, was found to destroy lung cancer in mice.

Study’s lead investigator Dr. Rana P. Singh told Reuters Health, “We have been studying milk thistle components, silymarin and silibinin, to examine their efficacy and mechanisms against different…cancers for over a decade.”

In their study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Singh’s team induced mice with lung cancer by injecting a chemical called urethane. The animals were then fed on diets containing different doses of silibinin.

“We obtained pure silibinin from Sigma Chemical Co., and silibinin diets were commercially prepared at room temperature and air dried. We did not use milk thistle dietary supplements which are available for human consumption,” Singh said.

Researchers found that mice that were fed silibinin had fewer large lung tumors than untreated mice. Further analysis showed that silibinin seemed to reduce the number of blood vessels that provide nutrients to the tumors, allowing them to grow.

Singh added that further laboratory studies of silibinin for lung cancer are now being done. “We expect soon after that clinical trials with silibinin in lung cancer patients will be planned.”

Human trials of silibinin are already underway for the treatment of prostate cancer.

Published in Cancer and Science & Technology
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