The study, which was carried out by researchers at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute (LA BioMed) focused on EGCG, or epigallocatechin gallate — an active biological agent found in green tea. The ensuing report, which was recently published in the journal Metabolics, shows that EGCG effectively suppresses lactate dehydrogenase, a crucial part of cancer metabolism.
This is hardly the first study to show the benefits of consuming green tea. Two years ago another study revealed that consuming green tea can lower the risk of digestive system cancers in women. Another study showed that intravenous deliveries of EGCG could actually reduce the size of cancerous tumours. In some cases, tumours completely disappeared.
But this most recent study focusing on pancreatic cancer cells has provided the most fruitful findings. LA BioMed researchers used state-of-the-art metabolic profiling techniques to discover exactly how EGCG affects cancer cells.
According to LA BioMed researcher Dr. Wai-Nang Lee, the result could “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.”
Moving forward, Lee says this most recent study will give medical researchers a great jumping-off point for new studies focusing on cancer development. “Now we understand how cancer cell metabolism can be disrupted, and we can examine how we can use this knowledge to try to alter the course of cancer or prevent cancer,” Lee said.
