You’re more than likely aware that green tea is thought to have some potent cancer preventing properties, but a new report in the journal Leukemia Research suggests it might be an effective treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) – an adult form of leukemia that arises in the blood and bone marrow. I say “might” because it’s far from a sure thing, but doctors from the Mayo Clinic say that out of four patients who they discovered had been using green tea extracts or drinking green tea, three were found to experience obvious improvement in their conditions.

Apparently, the four CLL patients had begun using the products on their own after hearing about studies showing that one of green tea’s main constituents, EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate,) could kill CLL cells in test tube experiments. The doctors, who somehow became aware that four of their patients were using green tea and seemed to be doing better, found that three of the patients had shown signs of regression in their leukemia, and a fourth experienced improved white blood cell counts, though her cancer was still considered unchanged by the standard criteria.

Obviously, four anecdotal cases doesn’t begin to approach proof that green tea is effective against CLL, but coupled with the what we already know about green tea’s cancer fighting abilities, it is certainly an intriguing story.

And proof one way or the other may be forthcoming, as an ongoing clinical trial sponsored by the National Cancer Institute is testing the effects of a purified EGCG extract in treating patients with CLL.

I’ll keep you up to date on this one.

SOURCE: Reuters – Early hope seen for green tea in fighting leukemia

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