Plant product may help prevent lung cancer

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Treatment with deguelin, a
chemical found in various plants, may help prevent lung cancer
caused by cigarette smoking, the results of an animal study
suggest.

Dr. Ho-Young Lee, from the University of Texas M. D.
Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and colleagues treated three
groups of mice with cancer-causing agents found in cigarette
smoke for 8 weeks. One group was treated with deguelin at the
same time, another was treated with deguelin afterward, and the
third group received no deguelin. The animals were sacrificed
and examined at week 20.

Animals in all three groups developed lung tumors, the
researchers reports in the Journal of the National Cancer
Institute.

However, giving deguelin at the same time as the
cancer-causing chemicals led to a marked reduction in the
number of tumors. Giving deguelin afterward also cut the number
of tumors, but the difference was not significant from a
statistical standpoint.

Although there are concerns that high doses of deguelin may
be toxic to the heart, lungs, and nerves, the authors observed
no major side effects with the doses used in their study.

These results, Lee’s team writes, “indicate that deguelin
warrants consideration as a (preventive) agent for early-stage
lung” cancer in human studies.

SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, November
16, 2005.