Green tea may inhibit colorectal cancer

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers find a lower risk of colorectal tumors in rodents given a standardized green tea polyphenol preparation.

After 34 weeks, the rodents receiving the green tea extract had 55 percent fewer tumors than the control group and their tumors were 45 percent smaller.

"Our findings show that rats fed a diet containing Polyphenon E, a standardized green tea polyphenol preparation, are less than half as likely to develop colon cancer," study author Hang Xiao, of Rutgers University, says in a statement.

Xiao points out these results are consistent with previously published results by the project's primary investigator, C.S. Yang, also of Rutgers University, which showed that green tea consumption was associated with lower colon cancer rates in Shanghai, China.

In this study, the test animals receiving the green tea extract also weighed about 5 percent less than their control group counterparts, a result Xiao attributes to the ability of the green tea polyphenols to block lipid absorption in the body.

The findings were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research's Sixth Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research in Philadelphia.