Chillies can kill cancer

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http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/03/16/wchilli16.xml

 

The substance in chillies that causes the tongue to burn also drives

prostate cancer cells to kill themselves, according to research that

could pave the way for new treatments.

 

The pepper component capsaicin makes the cells undergo programmed cell

death or apoptosis, says a study published in the journal Cancer

Research.

 

Tests found that it induced approximately 80 per cent of cancer cells

growing in mice to follow the molecular pathways leading to apoptosis.

 

Prostate cancer tumours treated with capsaicin were about one-fifth

the size of tumours in non-treated mice, said a team from the

Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, Los Angeles, in collaboration with

colleagues from the University of California, Los Angeles.

 

Every year, 10,000 men die and more than 30,000 are diagnosed with

prostate cancer in the UK.

 

" Capsaicin had a profound anti-proliferative effect on human prostate

cancer cells in culture, " said Dr Sören Lehmann, team member.

 

He estimated that the dose of pepper extract fed to the mice was

equivalent to giving 400 milligrams of capsaicin three times a week to

a 200-pound man, roughly equivalent to between three and eight fresh

habañera peppers.

 

Britain's Prostate Cancer Charity welcomed the study, but advised men

not to eat more hot chillis.

 

Head of Policy and Research, Chris Hiley, said: " Eventually, it may be

possible to extract the capsaicin and make it available as a drug

treatment. In the meantime we caution men with prostate cancer in the

UK against upping their weekly intake of the hottest known chillies.

High intake of hot chillies has been linked with stomach cancers in

the populations of India and Mexico. "