Beehive Extract Shows Potential as Prostate Cancer Treatment
Medical Press, May 4, 2012
An over-the-counter natural remedy derived from honeybee
hives arrests the growth of prostate cancer cells and tumors in mice, according
to a new paper from researchers at the University of Chicago Medicine.
Caffeic acid phenethyl ester, or CAPE, is a compound
isolated from honeybee hive propolis, the resin used by bees to patch up holes
in hives. Propolis has been used for centuries as a natural remedy for
conditions ranging from sore throats and allergies to burns and cancer. But the
compound has not gained acceptance in the clinic due to scientific questions
about its effect on cells.
In a paper published in Cancer Prevention Research,
researchers combined traditional cancer research methods with cutting-edge
proteomics to find that CAPE arrests early-stage prostate cancer by shutting
down the tumor cells' system for detecting sources of nutrition.
"If you feed CAPE to mice daily, their tumors will stop
growing. After several weeks, if you stop the treatment, the tumors will begin
to grow again at their original pace," said Richard B. Jones, PhD,
assistant professor in the Ben May Department for Cancer Research and Institute
for Genomics and Systems Biology and senior author of the study. "So it
doesn't kill the cancer, but it basically will indefinitely stop prostate
cancer proliferation."…
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