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CAM
& Life Style
> M - R
Last Update: 05/05/2009
Please do not consider the abstracts on supplements
within
to be proof of benefit. See Evaluating
Medical Claims & Data for details.
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Macrobiotic
diet | Massage | Melatonin |
Mind over Body? | Mistletoe | MGN-3 | NAC
| Naltrexone?
Quercetin | Resveratrol
| Rosemary
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Macrobiotic diet
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 TOPIC
SEARCH: PubMed
We have concerns that this diet can cause excessive weight loss in
some individuals and contribute to cachexia - loss of muscle mass, or
wasting.
"The macrobiotic diet is based loosely on Japanese eating
patterns and principles of Traditional Asian Medicine. The traditional
macrobiotic diet is vegan, consisting of whole grains, vegetables,
seaweeds, fermented foods, nuts, seeds, and seasonal fruits. It excludes
meat, eggs, and dairy products, and fluid intake is restricted, although
some more liberal forms of the macrobiotic diet include fish and other
animal products." [1]
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Massage
Physical manipulation of the body to induce relaxation
and promote healing
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Therapeutic massage appears to
have positive physical and emotional benefits that may offset the effects
of treatments for cancer
TOPIC SEARCH:
PubMed |
Wikipedia.org
CAUTION: "for lymphoma patients undergoing
treatment, having a therapeutic massage can be especially helpful in
relieving pain, fatigue and anxiety. However, experts caution that there
are some inherent risks in getting a massage that patients should know
about before having one done.
"For lymphoma patients, the massage has to be performed by someone
who is familiar with working with cancer patients," says Kathleen
Wesa, MD, assistant attending physician in the Integrative Medicine
Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. "You can't go to
any massage therapist. There are some considerations, for example, if
someone's blood counts are low, if the patient has had surgery or lymphedema.
You don’t want to be doing deep tissue massage on someone who has low
platelets or on someone who is frail."
2
Related Resources & Research News:
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What Should I know About Getting a Massage? Lymphoma.org
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Mind
over Body?
Can positive thinking affect treatment and outcomes.
Does stress
cause cancer?
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TOPIC
SEARCH: PubMed
From: Preventing Cancer Is There a Link Between Stress and Cancer?
By GINA KOLATA
What really caused it, they would say, was stress. It was plausible,
Dr. Newcomb reasoned. After all, stress could alter the functioning of
the immune system, in turn altering susceptibility to cancer.
So Dr. Newcomb incorporated standard questions about stressful life events into her continuing study of nearly 1,000 women. Had family
members or friends died? Had they gotten married or divorced? Had they
lost a job or had they retired? Had their financial status changed? Were there stressful events not on the list that they would like to
add?
But the results were clear: there was no association between stressful
events in the previous five years and a diagnosis of breast cancer. Other studies had the same result.
Still, not everyone was convinced. Critics told Dr. Newcomb and her colleague, Dr. Felicia Roberts, that they had measured stressors, not
stress. And Dr. Newcomb had to agree that they had a point. She chose stressful life events as a surrogate for experienced stress, but it is
not easy to measure the actual physiological stress that people experience and then follow them to see if they got cancer.
Commentary: Certain kinds of
stress, or reactions to stress, are strongly linked to some illnesses. And there is no question that
our reactions to excess stress can impair quality of life and general
health. And it may be that stress is sometimes a contributing factor in the origin of some cancers as described in the study below.
What is highly implausible, however, is the idea that we can alter the course of
an existing cancer or influence if a treatment works or not with the power
of mind. It's widely accepted, for good empirical reasons, that there is no placebo
effect against cancer, a reason we don't have placebo controlled cancer
studies: it would be unethical.
Ironically, the belief that positive thinking can cause a cancer to
regress or make therapies work better can increase our stress and diminish
our quality of life - when it sets up unrealistic expectations about the
power of our mind over these matters, which will leads often to self-blame
- as in, " I failed my family: I did not believe hard enough to
overcome the disease." However,
it seems that mindfulness/meditations, prayer, and exercise can indeed
improve how well we live and experience life, and may improve also our
general health. These practices may also improve our ability to make
better-informed medical decisions - to consider the full range of
reasonable treatment options and seek the best expert
guidance. Another danger of giving unearned-credit to Power of
Mind, is we can stay with an ineffective therapy too long, convinced it it
can work if we try harder.
Perhaps a way to free oneself from the overreacting to stress might be to
try to recognize and accept that fear and sadness is a natural reaction to very difficult
circumstance. This "touching bottom" is not the same
as accepting that all is lost or that this fight with this cancer
cannot be won ... but only to recognize that being human we are mortal
and have many limitations - but also many opportunities to win or live
well with the disease.
The instinct sometimes is to panic and
swim hard against the direction of a current, but swimmers know this is not the best way to escape
a rip tide. KarlS
 | Mind-Body Medicine for Cancer WebMD.
com
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Cancer incidence in parents who lost a child: a
nationwide study in Denmark. Cancer. 2002 Nov 15;95(10):2237-42. PMID:
12412179 | Related
Articles
The authors observed a slightly increased overall cancer risk in
bereaved mothers at 7-18 years of follow-up. There was an increased
risk for smoking-related malignancies among bereaved mothers during
the 7-18 years of follow-up. The authors observed no significantly
increased relative risk of breast carcinoma, alcohol-related
malignancies, virus/immune-related malignancies, or hormone-related
malignancies.
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also see: THE TYRANNY OF POSITIVE THINKING
PDF
I got really depressed when people said I should think positive. I
thought, "If that's what I have to do to survive, I'm never going
to make it."
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Mistletoe
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TOPIC
SEARCH: PubMed
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Melatonin
Questions and
related abstracts
Natural sources: a natural hormone; levels influenced
by exposure to light
Review
-Dr Arlene Goldman
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Melatonin
is a natural hormone, normally created by the pineal gland. It is
stimulated by darkness and inhibited by light. It regulates the
human biological clock. Melatonin is a highly important
antioxidant, it may also modulate immune function.
TOPIC
SEARCH: PubMed |
Chemotherapy
Questions:
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Should Melatonin be avoided by patients with immune
system cancers? |
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Can Melatonin reduce side effects of chemotherapy
without compromising efficacy? |
Related Resources & Research News:
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A randomized trial of CHOP
chemotherapy with or without melatonin in patients with favorable
prognosis large B-cell lymphoma. - ASCO
2004 ~ Abstract No: 8066 "The addition of melatonin to CHOP
chemotherapy did *not* decrease the incidence of neutropenia after
cycle 1 in this patient population. In addition, this study suggests
that there is no improvement in neutrophil nadir, CR rate, infection
rate, or change in hemoglobin or platelet counts with the addition of
melatonin."
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A phase II study of neuroimmunotherapy with subcutaneous low-dose
IL-2 plus the pineal hormone melatonin in untreatable advanced
hematologic malignancies.
Anticancer Res. 2000 May-Jun;20(3B):2103-5. PMID:
10928160
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Effects of melatonin on doxorubicin cytotoxicity in sensitive and
pleiotropically resistant tumor cells. J Pineal Res. 2001
Oct;31(3):206-13. PMID: 11589754 - PubMed
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Lymphocyte Changes in Lymphoma Patients Receiving Melatonin Plus Chop Chemotherapy. Year: 2000 ASCO Abstract No: 72
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Melatonin decreases bone marrow and lymphatic toxicity of
adriamycin in mice bearing TLX5 lymphoma. Life Sci.
1998;63(19):1701-13. PMID: 9806226 - PubMed
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A phase II study of neuroimmunotherapy with subcutaneous low-dose
IL-2 plus the pineal hormone melatonin in untreatable advanced
hematologic malignancies.
Anticancer Res. 2000 May-Jun;20(3B):2103-5. PMID: 10928160 - PubMed
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Selective effect of melatonin on the proliferation of lymphoid
cells. Int J Biochem. 1993 Mar;25(3):441-4. PMID: 8462731 - PubMed
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Lymphocyte Changes in Lymphoma Patients Receiving Melatonin
Plus Chop Chemotherapy.
Click here,
then Go to slide 72.
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| The validity of melatonin as an oncostatic agent. J Pineal Res.
1997 May;22(4):184-202. Review.
PMID: 9247204 - PubMed
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| Cyclophosphamide plus somatostatin, bromocriptin, retinoids,
melatonin and ACTH in the treatment of low-grade non-Hodgkin's
lymphomas at advanced stage: results of a phase II trial. Cancer
Biother Radiopharm. 2001 Apr;16(2):171-7. PMID: 11385964 - PubMed
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MGN3
Questions and
related abstracts
Natural sources:
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MGN3 is a
polysaccharide composed of the hemicellose-ß extract of rice bran,
modified by enzymes from Shiitake mushrooms.
TOPIC
SEARCH: PubMed
Presently, there is only in vitro (test tube) evidence that MGN3 might
increase NK cell levels or activity. No clinical data and few groups are
investigating it.
Questions:
| Does MGN3 modulate immunity in ways that are
beneficial to patients with NHL? |
| What doses are needed to achieve clinically useful
effects. |
Related Resources & Research News:
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Production of tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interferon-gamma from
human peripheral blood lymphocytes by MGN-3, a modified arabinoxylan from
rice bran, and its synergy with interleukin-2 in vitro. Cancer Detect Prev.
2000;24(4):314-24. PMID: 11059563 - PubMed
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NAC
Questions and
related abstracts
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N-acetyl-L-cysteine
(NAC) is an important natural supplement. However,
for individuals with NHL, it may prudent to avoid this supplement
for the following rather technical reasons.
TOPIC
SEARCH: PubMed
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Naltrexone
(low dose) ?
Questions and
related abstracts
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Low dose
Naltrexone (LDN) for Cancers?
Why
we are skeptical
TOPIC
SEARCH: PubMed
Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) is promoted as
a anti-cancer therapy by Dr. Bihari on a website named LDN and Cancer.2 A case report1 cites the reported outcomes for LDN
on this website as a
rationale for LDN and reports on the outcome. Here we list the many
reasons to be skeptical about the reports.
Regarding the LDN and Cancer website:
First, we call attention to many red flags in the text, which begin
with a qualifying statement about the need to do prospective studies
(giving the appearance of objectivity), but consistently maintains
that cancer patients benefit from the use of LDN - the estimate
being more than 60%.
From => "Although prospective, controlled clinical trials on LDN in the
treatment of cancer are yet to be accomplished, as of March 2004 clinical
"off-label" use of this medication by Dr. Bihari in some 450 patients with
cancer almost all of whom had failed to respond to standard treatments suggests that
more than 60% of patients with cancer *may significantly*
benefit from LDN." 2
To => "It will clearly require extensive study of LDN in prospective,
controlled clinical trials to determine which cancers respond best and which
other therapies are complementary to or synergistic with LDN."2
The phrase "which cancers respond best" implies that it's known that some
cancers respond to LDN, which requires faith in Bihari's
reporting of the responses, which are not defined, are kept internally,
and have not been published in a respected
journal. The fact is that we don't know if ANY cancers respond to
LDN.
RED FLAGS:
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Misleading information:
Regarding the text: "Although prospective, controlled clinical trials on LDN in the
treatment of cancer are yet to be accomplished as of March 2004 ...
We are not aware of any clinical trial using
low dose Naltrexone for any Cancer as of 2008!
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| Conspiracy of silence?
It would be a major story if 60% of patients who did not respond to chemo really benefited from LDN.
That it has not been covered by the media or the research community
would require a cover-up or conspiracy of silence - which would
require the complicity of thousands of experts who also get cancers,
whose loved one's get cancer.
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Too many conditions? The
website text reports that patients with many types of cancers have
benefited from LDN: From Lung .... Ovarian cancers, along with
a host of intractable medical conditions, including HIV.
Consider the number of cancers and conditions for which LDN is
promoted:
“helping
those with HIV/AIDS, cancer, autoimmune diseases, and central nervous
system disorders” (Nov 1 1997 http://www.lowdosenaltrexone.org)
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| Conflict of interest: Dr.
Bihari, who consults patients on the use of LDN, has an obvious financial conflict of
interest. We should consider the potential for bias is high when the
claims come only from the provider - in this case the consultant.
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| Practicing outside domain: Dr.
Bihari is not an oncologist or even an internist; his degree is in
Psychiatry and Neurology. |
Regarding the LDN case study 1 published on the Internet:
"Bihari
reported that he has used LDN with promising results for people with
various malignancies including but not limited to primary cancers of the
bladder, breast, liver, lung, lymph nodes, colon, and rectum Over
the years, he has administered LDN to more than 450 people with cancer,
most of whom initially failed standard conventional treatments. 1
According to Bihari, 86 of the 354 patients followed regularly
demonstrated at least a 75% reduction in overall tumor bulk, and an
additional 125 patients demonstrated disease stability."[9] 1
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The case report cites statistics provided
by Dr. Bihari in LDN and Cancer2 website, which
is internally kept response data, with no way to substantiate it. The outcomes are not the result of randomized studies; nor are the claims
made for specific indications. The outcomes are not defined.
For example, we don't know what response means or how long the responses
lasted. There is no independent assessment or verification.
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in the case report 1:
no definitions of "reduction in bulk";
no definition of time to response or response durations;
no description of methods and how outcomes were measured …
no scientific method. Nothing "regularly demonstrated." |
Dr. Bihari hasn't published his findings
for peer review ... the reference [9] in the case report is to a website that
promotes LDN, not a medical journal. Be
aware, that the professional-looking case report does not
provide verifiable or reliable measures of outcome in the follow up:
At the 6-month follow-up on May 2, 2006,
T.M. stated that his nodes had almost completely resolved, and on examination, neither the large cervical nodes
nor the large inguinal nodes were palpable.
... At the time of this report, and per telephone communication from the patient’s wife,
T.M. remains asymptomatic from his disease, now 1 year after his last CT/PET imaging.
... Follow-up by telephone, reported
by the patient's wife, is the very opposite of objective independently assessed
evidence.
Furthermore, as noted in the report, the condition could easily
"represent a period of spontaneous
remission", which
is very common for follicular lymphoma.
The case study (any case report) cannot tell us how many
people have tried LDN and had no regressions, or if the intervention caused
the observed response, or were coincidental. The report
ends with a conclusion that
ethical scientists would never make on the basis of a case report:
We believe that by the mechanisms presented
herein, LDN demonstrates significant potential to increase disease-free as well as
overall survival in people with FL.
Clearly, nothing has been demonstrated
regarding the proposed mechanisms.
That the authors suggest that LDN can improve overall survival
is especially baffling, when even large randomized studies with very long
follow up often fail to demonstrate this for treatments of indolent
lymphomas.
Recommendation: Dr. Bihari should publish his findings in a respected
journal, or make a public statement
contradicting the promotions of others who quote him to promote the
off-label use of LDN. If the data is judged compelling by his peers, he
will be able to attract capital to do a controlled study to prove his
claims. It really is that simple. The information on the LDN
website for cancers 2 should be removed until clinical studies
are done that demonstrate benefit for specific cancers. We remind the reader that it's very easy to make claims (we could all dash
them off in seconds), but it's vital that we prove them before
promoting interventions for disease. In fact, it’s the law.
... It’s vital because without an evidence-based system we
would have no idea which therapy has true value and would be subjected to
endless sales promotions from all points on the compass.
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Quercetin
Questions and related abstracts
Natural sources: onions, apple skin, black
tea
CAUTION: Tea might also contain
high levels of fluoride - bruha.com
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Flavonoids,
such as quercetin, are plant pigments which color flowers, fruits and vegetables. Thousands
of flavonoids have been identified; notable ones include
proanthocyanidins, quercetin, citrus bioflavonoids, black and green tea
polyphenols.
TOPIC
SEARCH: PubMed
CAUTION: High dietary intake of Bioflavonoids may contribute to
infant leukemia - Reuters
There is some evidence that the flavonoid Quercetin might have anticancer
properties specific to lymphoma under certain conditions.
Questions:
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Can flavonoids like quercetin reduce inflammation and
slow progression of lymphomas in clinically significant ways? |
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What are the risks associated with high dietary
intake of bioflavonoids? |
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What doses, if any, of flavonoids are required to
achieve clinically useful effects? |
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Can herbs with anticancer properties be used in
combination to achieve synergies and clinically significant effects? |
Related Resources & Research News:
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| Synergistic cytotoxic effect of quercetin and heat treatment in
a lymphoid cell line (OZ) with low HSP70 expression. Leuk Res. 1997
Feb;21(2):139-45. PMID: 9112431 - PubMed
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| Effect of black tea on (iso-)prostaglandins and platelet
aggregation in healthy volunteers.
Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids. 2002 May;66(5-6):529-33.
PMID: 12144875 - PubMed
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| The
effects of flavonoids on human lymphocyte proliferative responses.
Prog Clin Biol Res. 1986;213:511-20. PMID: 3714747; UI: 86233563. - PubMed
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Resveratrol
Questions and related abstracts
Natural sources:
dark red grapes
It is produced by Vitis vinifera and
labrusca grapes and is found in grape products including red and white
wines. The consumption of muscadines and muscadine products, especially
those made from pomace purees, could help incorporate a significant
quantity of resveratrol into the average diet.
Muscadine Grape Nutrition - ncwine.org
ON STABILITY and CONCENTRATIONS: Resveratrol
was stable for up to 5 days at 4 degrees C in the dark but was not stable
at room temperature without protection from light. Resveratrol was
detected in grape, cranberry, and wine samples. Concentrations ranged from
1.56 to 1042 nmol/g in Concord grape products, and from 8.63 to 24.84
micromol/L in Italian red wine. The concentrations of resveratrol were similar
in cranberry and grape juice at 1.07 and 1.56 nmol/g, respectively. [7]
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Resveratrol, (RES-VEAR-A-TROL)
a phytoalexin found in red
grapes, appears to have anti-inflammatory (inhibited cox-2-cyclooxygenase),
anti-promotion, and anti-progression activity.
Bioavailability? "Although trans-resveratrol appears to be well-absorbed by humans when taken orally, its bioavailability is relatively low due to its rapid metabolism and elimination
... Information about the bioavailability of resveratrol in humans is important because much of the basic research on resveratrol has been conducted in cultured cells exposed to unmetabolized resveratrol at concentrations that are often 10-100 times greater than peak concentrations observed in human plasma after oral consumption. Although cells that line the digestive tract are exposed to unmetabolized resveratrol, research in humans suggests that other tissues are exposed primarily to resveratrol metabolites.
Little is known about the biological activity of resveratrol metabolites, and it is not known whether some tissues are capable of converting resveratrol metabolites back to resveratrol (7).
Source: http://lpi.oregonstate.edu
TOPIC
SEARCH : PubMed
| Sources
and stability
Questions:
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Can Resveratrol reduce inflammation and slow
progression of lymphomas in clinically significant ways? |
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What doses, if any, of Resveratrol are required to
achieve clinically useful effects? |
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Can natural compounds with anticancer properties be used in
combination to achieve synergies and clinically significant effects? |
Related Resources & Research News:
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Resveratrol modifies the
expression of apoptotic regulatory proteins and sensitizes
non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma cell lines to
paclitaxel-induced apoptosis.
Mol Cancer Ther. 2004 Jan;3(1):71-84. PMID:
14749477 | Related
articles
Scientists to Study Red Wine for Anti-Cancer Drug - Reuters
11_05_02
"... possible new cancer prevention drug based on resveratrol, a
natural compound found in red wine. "
Involvement of c-jun NH(2)-terminal kinases in
resveratrol-induced activation of p53 and apoptosis. Mol Carcinog.
2002 Apr;33(4):244-50. PMID: 11933078 - PubMed
Chemopreventive
agent resveratrol, a natural product derived from grapes, triggers
CD95 signaling-dependent apoptosis in human tumor cells. Blood.
1998 Aug 1;92(3):996-1002. PMID: 9680369 - PubMed
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HOW A PLANT'S ANTI-FUNGAL DEFENSE MAY PROTECT AGAINST CANCER - CancerResearchUK.org
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ON STABILITY AND
CONCENTRATIONS: An LC-MS method for analyzing total resveratrol in
grape juice, cranberry juice, and in wine. J Agric Food Chem. 2002 Jan
30;50(3):431-5. PMID: 11804508
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Piceatannol, a hydroxylated analog of the chemopreventive agent
resveratrol,
is a potent inducer of apoptosis in the lymphoma cell line BJAB and in primary, leukemic
lymphoblasts. Leukemia. 2001 Nov;15(11):1735-42. - PubMed
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Rosemary
Questions and related abstracts
Natural sources:
rosemary plant
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Rosemary, a common herb, has anti-inflammatory properties,
inhibits prostaglandin 2/cox-2.
TOPIC
SEARCH: PubMed
Questions:
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Can rosemary reduce inflammation and slow progression
of lymphomas in clinically significant ways? If so, at what doses? |
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Can herbs with anticancer properties be used in
combination to achieve clinically significant effects? |
Related Resources & Research News:
| Antioxidant
and cyclooxygenase inhibitory phenolic compounds from Ocimum sanctum
Linn. Phytomedicine. 2000 Mar;7(1):7-13. PMID: 10782484 - PubMed
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