one of the characteristics of CLL - before she starting taking green tea capsules twice a day. Over the next year, her lymph nodes steadily decreased in size, according to findings published online by the journal Leukemia Research. Another patient showed an improvement in her white blood cell count after she started drinking eight cups of green tea per day. These cases alone cannot prove that green tea or its extracts conferred the benefits, Shanafelt told Reuters Health. An answer to that question, he said, awaits the outcome of an ongoing clinical trial he is leading. The study, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, is testing the effects of a purified EGCG extract in treating CLL. For now, Shanafelt said, there are many unknowns. For example, the researchers don't know how many CLL patients might have tried green tea products and failed to improve. Nor is it clear what doses patients should take, or whether high doses over a long period could have side effects. A number of previous studies have suggested that green tea and extracts of the beverage have cancer-fighting abilities, possibly due to the tea's concentration of certain antioxidants - compounds that help ward off cell damage that can lead to cancer, heart disease and other ills. EGCG is thought to be the most potent of these tea antioxidants. The Mayo study from last year suggested that EGCG might induce leukemia cells to self-destruct by interfering with the communication signals they need to survive. But the exact mechanism by which green tea may fight cancer remains unclear. --SP 19 38 Local Time 16 38 GMT
