Lapachone bark extract
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Tree bark extract might help treat rare eye cancer
An extract from the bark of a South American tree might lead to better treatments
for a rare but deadly childhood eye cancer called retinoblastoma. Retinoblastoma
affects 1 in 15,000 children, causing about 3 percent of all cancers in
children. It forms when developing cells in the retina -- the eye's main light
sensor -- go haywire and start reproducing out of control. The cancer usually
develops in children under age 6 and kills within two to four years after
diagnosis if not treated. If detected early and treated with a combination of
chemotherapy agents or radiation, 90 to 95 percent of children live. But
conventional treatment has significant side effects. Dr. Joan O'Brien of the
University of California, San Francisco wanted to see whether the tree bark
extract beta lapachone could cause
the abnormal cells to commit suicide -- something it has been shown to do in a
number of cancer types, including breast and prostate cells. They tested the
extract in the laboratory and found that beta-lapachone significantly blocked
rapid cell growth of human tumor cells and that low doses could cause damaged
cells to kill themselves in a process called apoptosis, or programmed cell
death. Writing in the journal Eye, the scientists said their findings support
other studies of the extract in different human cancers and may lead to an
effective treatment.