Green Tea and COX-2 Inhibitors Combo May Slow Growth of Prostate Cancer
Researchers have demonstrated in cell culture and animal trials that low doses of the COX-2 inhibitor celecoxib, in combination with a green tea polyphenol called epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), can slow the growth of human prostate cancer.
Alone, both EGCG and NS-398, a COX-2 inhibitor similar to celecoxib, demonstrated the ability to slow cancer cell growth and limit the presence of known cancer-promoting proteins within the cell samples. Together, EGCG and NS-398 suppressed cell growth by an additional 15 to 28 percent.
The beauty of these findings is that if proven effective in human trials, this may mean that that the additive effect of green tea enables the use of COX-2 inhibitors possibly at lower and safer doses. Hopefully these results can be replicated in human trials using pharmacy-grade celecoxib and actual tea.
This study has been published in the March 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research.
Interesting … the question then is: how to change my diet? Green tea I understand … what about COX-2 – what kind of food might I find that in?
Wheat Free: I thought it’s obvious from the article that COX-” inhibitors are drugs. Follow the link to celecoxib to find more info.