Natural blueberry extract improves the success of radiotherapy

Blueberry extract improves radiotherapy for cervical cancer
Scientists from the US have recently shown in experiments with cell cultures that blueberries could potentially improve the success of cervical cancer radiotherapy.

Blueberry extract showed beneficial effects. Picture: azure-fotolia

About 12,000 women develop cervical cancer in the US each year. The most common treatment, especially in late stages, is irradiation, which destroys nearby healthy cells in addition to cancer cells. The researchers therefore wanted to know whether blueberries can act as sogeannte "Radiosensitizer". These are non-toxic substances that selectively increase the sensitivity of malignant tumor cells to ionizing radiation after administration. Radiosensitizers are designed to increase the effectiveness of radiotherapy. The study can be found here.

Scientists were able to show that radiation reduces human cervical cancer cells by 20 percent. Bilberry extract even reduced the number of cancer cells by 25 percent. With a combination of radiation and blueberry extract, the number of cancer cells dropped by about 70 percent. Blueberry extract contains resveratrol as well as flavonoids, which can have an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effect, according to the researchers.

The mechanism that makes blueberry extract a radiosensitizer also reduces an abnormal explosion of cell growth - what cancer is. Cancer cells prevent cell death by reshaping. The extract not only reduced the proliferation of cells, but bring cancer cells to die off, so the study authors. He inhibits the re-emergence and promotes the death of cancer cells. In further steps, it now had to be examined whether the results were confirmed in animal experiments. (Pm)