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October 29, 2009: by ResveratrolNews
The provision of high-dose resveratrol to laboratory mice not only cures many of them of metastatic (spreading) cancer, but produces complete immunity towards future cancer among surviving animals, even when tumor cells are intentionally re-injected into their bodies.
This astounding discovery has cancer researchers buzzing about a nutriceutical cancer vaccine that could revolutionize modern cancer therapy.
Researchers at the Department of Food Science, Chiayi University in Taiwan, injected laboratory mice twelve times with tumor cells which ended up in the lungs of the animals, mimicking metastatic colon cancer.
The animals were then fed the human equivalent of 1050 milligrams of resveratrol for 100 days. Fifty-percent (50%) of these animals survived compared to 0% in untreated animals. That result is remarkable in itself, but there was a longer-lasting effect, as researchers go on to explain.
The surviving animals then had tumor cells injected once again, only this time without resveratrol being given to them. No tumors were noted in the lungs or elsewhere. The animals appeared to be “cancer-proof.” Researchers called it a “vaccine-like” effect.
These microscopic photos show slices of mouse lung tissue. A2 represents lung tissue in healthy mice that were not injected with cancer cells. Photo B2 shows lung tissue laden with tumors after cancer cells were injected into the animals. Photo C2 represents lung tissue injection of tumor cells when resveratrol was administered. The cancer eradication effect was achieved at a human equivalent dose of 1050 milligrams of resveratrol.
Inexplicably, the inhibitory effects of resveratrol on tumor growth and lung metastasis could not be explained by natural killer or cytotoxic T-lymphocyte stimulation, typically seen when the immune system is activated. Researchers say the underlying mechanisms remain unclear, at least for now.
In 1893 Dr. William P. Coley was the first to link immunity to cancer therapy by observing that tumor size decreases when cancer patients are injected with infectious bacteria.
Based upon work by other researchers, mega-dose resveratrol should only be used for treatment of existing cancer. Mega-dose resveratrol has been shown to weaken the heart and shorten the lifespan of healthy lab animals. Animal studies suggest 175-300 mg of resveratrol exerts beneficial effects. Even lower doses have been demonstrated to exert far greater biological effect when combined with other molecules such as quercetin and rice bran.
The report is published in an early online edition of Molecular Nutrition & Food Research [Volume 53, pages 1-9, 2009].
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