Green Tea Shows Protective Effect Against Gastric and Esophageal Cancers The first biomarker-based prospective study of green tea and cancers of the stomach and esophagus demonstrates a strong protective effect: subjects demonstrating the presence of tea polyphenols in their single-void urine specimens exhibit a lower risk for both cancers. The new data, presented here, confirm reports from earlier retrospective research. Tea polyphenols are antioxidants that have been shown to have chemoprotective benefits for cancers at these and other sites. "We found approximately a 50% reduction in relative risk, which is confined to subjects with low serum levels of carotene, which is also an antioxidant," said Can-Lan Sun, lead author of the study report, and a researcher in the Department of Preventive Medicine at University of Southern California Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center in Los Angeles. "It appears that tea polyphenols may play an important protective role in people who have low levels of other antioxidants." Investigators at USC collaborated with the Shanghai Cancer Institute on a prospective cohort study involving 18,244 middle aged or older men in Shanghai, China. Chinese men have a much higher risk for gastric and esophageal cancers than the U.S. population, but prognoses of these cancers are universally poor. The overall five-year survival rate for gastric cancer is about 21%; under 10% of patients with esophageal cancer live more than 12 months after diagnosis. In this study, levels of two tea polyphenol markers, epigallocatechin (EGC) and epicatechin (EC), were measured in urine samples taken from 190 men with gastric cancer and 42 men with esophageal cancer before their malignancies were diagnosed. These data were compared with urinary EGC and EC levels for 772 control subjects from the same cohort, matched for age and other relevant factors to the cancer cases. The investigators found a statistically significant association between presence of EGC in baseline urine and reduced risk of gastric and esophageal cancer among cohort subjects. No such association was observed for EC. From the Cancer Letter www.cancerletter.com Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.