Green Tea Extract To Treat Chronic Leukemia

The good news about chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is that it typically progresses very slowly. The bad news is that it is a terminal disease with no cure. During the 1970s to 1990s the median survival rate was eight to 12 years. The National Cancer Institute estimates that in 2010 there will be 14,990 new cases and 4,390 deaths related to CLL.

CLL Disease

Leukemia occurs in four forms, one of which is CLL. CLL is essentially the same as some forms of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, the difference being that in CLL a single cell mutates and begins producing cancerous white blood cells in the bone marrow, while lymphoma begins in the blood itself. CLL is diagnosed through extensive blood tests and a bone marrow biopsy. Often the disease is discovered before a person is symptomatic, when a high white cell count shows up during a routine health checkup. The basic problem is that the cancerous white blood cells do not die, and in time the red blood cells and necessary infection-fighting white blood cells are crowded out. The bone marrow becomes infiltrated with cancerous cells. No cure is yet available, although available treatments slow the progression of CLL or create remissions.

CLL Symptoms and Course

Most commonly, CLL is a slowly progressing disease. Because so many people only get it when they are elderly, it may not become problematic before a person dies from something else. Often CLL causes swollen lymph nodes in several areas of the body, including the spleen. White cell counts generally continue to rise and eventually a person has too few blood platelets, meaning his blood cannot clot, causing hemorrhages. Equally likely are progressively numerous infections, including pneumonia. Many die from complications of hemorrhages or infections. A CLL patient may require treatment for infections, blood transfusions, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or therapies that target markers on the cancerous cells and kill them.

Green Tea's Effect in Cancer

Study of green tea and its potential for inhibiting cancer cells is the focus of cancer research, and particularly CLL research. Green tea contains polyphenols identified as types of epigallocatechin, that makes up 200-300 mg in a brewed cup of the tea. Over 765 published research studies concerned green tea as of 2006. Green tea leaves, more than black tea, helped leukemia survivors, except for
acute myeloid leukemia, in research published by M. Zhang in the "British Journal of Cancer" in 2008. What is exciting about green tea is that numerous studies found it interferes with the pathways for cell growth or cell death. It inhibits or stops the production of some types of cancerous cell growth. Since CLL is a disease of currently unstoppable cancerous white cell growth, green tea's potential is significant.

Green Tea Appears to Slow or Maybe Cure CLL

Exciting news for CLL survivors has come from clinical trials performed by researchers at the Mayo Clinic, who in June 2010 announced results of Phase II of a trial testing the effect of green tea on CLL. In a carefully constructed study based upon green tea and CLL research, a form of epigallocatechin, EGCG, reduced the size of lymph nodes and reduced the number of cancerous white cells in people with CLL. EGCG given in 2,000 mg doses daily produced these results with only very mild side effects. Because Phase III trials are needed to determine whether the extract actually slows progress of CLL, the Mayo researchers may not yet actually recommend that CLL survivors ingest green tea. However, the success of Phase II is so striking they seem optimistic about green tea's efficacy.

Hope for CLL Survivors

While there remains no "magic bullet" approach or cure for CLL, green tea may turn out to be major help in extending lives, or even curing the disease. Today, most people with CLL stand a chance of living longer; the median age at death for 2003 to 2007 was 79, because of improvements in treatment. The five-year relative rate of survival was 78.4 percent for 2003 to 2007. But one in 210 people will get CLL between their 50th and 70th birthdays. If green tea's effectiveness in CLL is proven, many CLL survivors could have new lives.