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Can Green Tea Minimize Cancer Risk?

For centuries, the Chinese have been touting the benefits of green tea. And over the past decade, researchers in the West have finally begun to take notice. In the past few years alone, dozens of studies have been published on the beverage's anti-cancer properties.

Is green tea for real? It certainly contains plenty of antioxidants, which have been shown in many studies to have a preventive effect on breast and other cancers. Green tea also contains significant levels of polyphenols-chemicals that are known to inhibit the formation and growth of tumors.

But translating the remarkable success that green tea has shown in laboratory studies into definitive human trials has been elusive.

Cancer rates in Asian countries are dramatically lower than in the West. While there may be several factors in Asian diets that contribute to lower cancer rates, green tea certainly appears to be one of them. While studies have yet to be performed on how much tea individuals would need to drink to derive benefit, experts note that the Chinese drink green tea throughout the day. But even a cup a day may help, they suggest.

Inhibiting Blood Vessel Growth

A study by Swedish researchers, appearing in the journal Nature, suggests that green tea's cancer-fighting benefits may be due to a component of the drink that prevents angiogenesis, the process of blood vessel growth. Tumors are dependent on the continual development of new blood vessels to grow and multiply.

Drs. Yihai Cao and Renhai Cao of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm believe that a substance called EGCG (epigallocatechin-3-gallate) may be active in preventing the growth of new blood vessels in tumors, and could be the key to green tea's association with lower cancer incidence. In a study with laboratory mice, they found 70 percent less blood-vessel growth in mice that were given green tea than in water-consuming controls.

Similarly, a group of researchers from the University of California at San Diego also found that EGCG stopped tumor blood-vessel growth, specifically in human colorectal cancer cells. Presenting their findings at an annual meeting of Digestive Disease Week, lead investigator Dharam Chauhan, Ph.D. noted that EGCG makes up 15 percent of green tea, which may further indicate its importance in the beverage's cancer-preventive properties.

Antioxidant Activity

Another study, published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, concluded that drinking as little as 300 ml (10 oz.) of green tea significantly increases the total antioxidant capacity of plasma.

Dr. W.K. Min of the University of Ulsan College of Medicine in Seoul, Korea and colleagues noted that many demographic studies show a lower incidence of cancer (and coronary heart disease) among drinkers of green tea. So they set out to measure the specific level of antioxidant capacity of plasma in human participants drinking different amounts of the beverage.

They found that antioxidant capacity did not increase significantly after drinking 150 ml of green tea. However, it rose 7 percent after consumption of 300 ml and 12 percent after drinking 450 ml.

Their findings, they wrote, confirm a measurable antioxidant benefit derived from green tea consumption. However, the specific roles that each component of green tea play in the increase in antioxidant capacity still need further investigation, they noted.

Green Tea vs. Black Tea

Researchers have suggested that, after controlling for other known risks, green tea consumption could lower the risk of certain cancers by 20 to 50 percent. But the bulk of scientific research suggests that black tea does not provide the same preventive benefit.

Green tea, composed mainly of leaves, is steamed or fired prior to being rolled. Oolong and black teas get their color and flavor from additional processing-which may in turn reduce their cancer-fighting benefits.

Should green tea become a staple in your diet? While further research may confirm whether there are some cancer-preventive benefits, the exact level of protection is still uncertain. However, unlike some other dietary supplements, it would seem that there are no known side effects from its consumption.

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