"Coffee plus Honey" versus "topical steroid" in the treatment of Chemotherapy-induced Oral mucositis: a randomised controlled trial Mohammad Ali Raeessi, Neda Raeessi, Yunes Panahi, Homa Gharaie, Seyyed Masoud Davoudi, Alireza Saadat, Ali Akbar Karimi Zarchi, Fereshteh Raeessi, Seyyed Mostafa Ahmadi and Hamidreza Jalallian
Abstract Background Oral mucositis is one of the common complications of cancer chemotherapy and about 40% of the patients who take chemotherapy protocols, experience this irritating problem. The purpose of this study was to draw comparison between the therapeutic effects of our treatment modalities (topical steroid, honey, honey plus coffee) in patients suffering from oral mucositis.
Methods This was a double blinded randomised clinical trial of a total of 75 eligible adult participants which they randomly fell into three treatment groups. For all the participants a syrup-like solution was prepared. Each 600 grams of the product consisted of "20 eight-mg Betamethasone solution ampoules" in the Steroid (S) group, "300 grams of honey plus 20 grams of instant coffee" in the Honey plus Coffee (HC) group, and "300 grams of honey" for the Honey (H) group. The participants were told to sip 10 ml of the prescribed product, and then swallow it every three hours for one week. Severity of lesions was clinically evaluated before the treatment and also one week after the initiation of the intervention. This study adhered to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and guidelines of Good Clinical Practice.
Results This study showed that all three treatment regimens reduce the severity of lesions. The best reduction in severity was achieved in HC group. H group and S group took the second and third places. In other words, honey plus coffee regimen was the most effective modality for the treatment of oral mucositis.
Conclusion Oral mucositis can be successfully treated by a combination of honey and coffee as an alternative medicine in a short time. Further investigations are warranted in this field
Effect of Coffee and Green Tea Consumption on the Risk of Liver Cancer: Cohort Analysis by Hepatitis Virus Infection Status
Manami Inoue1, Norie Kurahashi1, Motoki Iwasaki1, Taichi Shimazu1, Yasuhito Tanaka2,Masashi Mizokami2, Shoichiro Tsugane1 and for the Japan Public Health Center-Based Prospective Study Group
Epidemiology and Prevention Division, Research Center for Cancer Prevention and Screening, National Cancer Center, Tokyo,
Japan and 2Department of Clinical Molecular Informative Medicine, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya,
Japan
Abstract
In spite of their anticarcinogenic
potential, the effect of coffee and green tea consumption on the risk of
liver cancer has
not been clarified prospectively in consideration
of hepatitis C (HCV) and B virus (HBV) infection. We examined whether
coffee
and green tea consumption was associated with a
reduced risk of liver cancer by hepatitis virus infection status in the
Japan
Public Health Center-Based Prospective Study Cohort
II. A total of 18,815 subjects ages 40 to 69 years participating in a
questionnaire and health checkup survey in 1993 to
1994 were followed for the incidence of liver cancer through 2006. A
total
of 110 cases of liver cancer were newly documented.
Hazard ratios for coffee and green tea consumption categories were
calculated
with a Cox proportional hazards model. Compared
with almost never drinkers, increased coffee consumption was associated
with
a reduced risk of liver cancer in all subjects
(hazard ratio for <1, 1-2, and ≥3 cups/d; Ptrend =
0.67, 0.49, 0.54, and 0.025). A similar risk tendency was observed in
those with either or both HCV and HBV infection.
In contrast, no association was observed between
green tea consumption and the risk of liver cancer in all subjects. Our
results
suggest that coffee consumption may reduce the risk
of liver cancer regardless of HCV and HBV infection status, whereas
green
tea may not reduce this risk
Topical applications of caffeine or (−)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) inhibit carcinogenesis and selectively increase apoptosis in UVB-induced skin tumors in mice
Yao-Ping Lu,You-Rong Lou,Jian-Guo Xie,Qing-Yun Peng,Jie Liao,Chung S. Yang,Mou-Tuan Huang, and Allan H. Conney*Susan Lehman Cullman Laboratory for Cancer Research, Department of Chemical Biology, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers, State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8020 Contributed by Allan H. Conney
Abstract SKH-1 hairless mice were irradiated with ultraviolet B (UVB) twice weekly for 20 weeks. These tumor-free mice, which had a high risk of developing skin tumors during the next several months, were then treated topically with caffeine (6.2 μmol) or (−)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG; 6.5 μmol) once a day 5 days a week for 18 weeks in the absence of further treatment with UVB. Topical applications of caffeine to these mice decreased the number of nonmalignant and malignant skin tumors per mouse by 44% and 72%, respectively. Topical applications of EGCG decreased the number of nonmalignant and malignant tumors per mouse by 55% and 66%, respectively. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that topical applications of caffeine or EGCG increased apoptosis as measured by the number of caspase 3-positive cells in nonmalignant skin tumors by 87% or 72%, respectively, and in squamous cell carcinomas by 92% or 56%, respectively, but there was no effect on apoptosis in nontumor areas of the epidermis. Topical applications of caffeine or EGCG had a small inhibitory effect on proliferation in nonmalignant tumors as measured by BrdUrd labeling (16–22%), and there was also a similar, but nonsignificant, inhibitory effect on proliferation in malignant tumors. The results suggest a need for further studies to determine whether topical applications of caffeine or EGCG can inhibit sunlight-induced skin cancer in humans.
Source : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of The United States of America LINK TO FULL ARTICLE