Green Tea Blocks Benefits Of Velcade Cancer and Amyloidosis Drug

Since I have occasionally suggested Green Tea from the benefits I have received, I thought it was important to get this information out quickly. Of course, please speak with your doctors before starting any complementary treatments and share new research with them such as this. This research indicates that green tea cancels out the benefits of Velcade (bortezomib) and other boronic acid-based proteasome inhibitors. I'm not sure what these are. Regardless, I am considering stopping my green tea consumption.

Unfortunately I don't have access to the full text of the journal article yet and only can access the abstract. As a result I could not find out how the green tea was administered (pill vs. drinking), and if it was administered during the chemo treatment (i.e. with the Velcade or only during the non-chemo days). If anyone has access to the article and can provide this information I would be interested.

After discussions with my oncologist, I did not take the green tea pills, or take green tea during the chemo treatment days (waiting at least 3 days on either side of the treatment). Now I wonder if I should wait until I stop chemo (if and when that happens). I believe my doctor was concerned not to overtax the kidney, since the Melphalan is processed through the kidneys. I don't know about the Velcade.

Talk to your oncologist first and share this new information! The information on the research is below. There sounds like there will be some new research on green tea helping treatment in the future and I will be looking forward to that research as well.

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ScienceDaily (2009-02-05) -- Contrary to popular assumptions about the health benefits of green tea, researchers have found that the widely used supplement renders a cancer drug used to treat multiple myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma completely ineffective in treating cancer.

The research findings are part of a larger project run by the team called "Yin-Yang Properties of Green Tea Extract in Combination Cancer Chemotherapy: From Encouragingly Beneficial to Dangerously Detrimental."

"Obviously, the combination of GTE or EGCG with Velcade is an example of 'dangerously detrimental,' "Schönthal says. "But we are also studying another well-established chemotherapeutic drug, where the inclusion of EGCG appears to yield an 'encouragingly beneficial' outcome, which is more in line with our original expectation that GTE should be beneficial, not detrimental."

Access the science daily post at:http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090203162355.htm#

The Blood Journal reference:

Encouse B. Golden, Philip Y. Lam, Adel Kardosh, Kevin J. Gaffney, Enrique Cadenas, Stan G. Louise, Nicos A. Petasis, Thomas C. Chen, Axel H. Schönthal. Green Tea Polyphenols Block The Anticancer Effects of Bortezomib And Other Boronic Acid-Based Proteasome Inhibitors. Blood, Feb 3, 2009 DOI: 10.1182/blood-2008-07-171389

Update Feb. 7th:

Thanks to the International Myeloma Foundation for making this article available at:

http://myeloma.org/main.jsp?source=link&source_link_id=3793&type=article&tab_id=1&menu_id=0&id=2511

February Medical Update & new links

I saw both the oncologist and the rheumatologist yesterday. Good news from both of them. My Free Light Chain numbers are still going down, although not as dramatically as in the beginning. My Lambda was up at 30 at one point, so seeing it at 4.67 is great (normal is 0.57-2.63) . In other words, I am still making good progress reducing the amount of amyloid being produced in my body.

Although my heart's NT Pro BNP came up slightly, my energy level and improved heart symptoms indicates the heart has improved. There is some controversy anyway about using NT Pro BNP as a marker for how the chemo is working so my energy level and reduction in heart failure symptoms are probably the best markers. We aren't sure how the kidney's may have improved but may do one of those 24-hour urine tests soon. Thank god for my oncologist!

I am so grateful to have found my rheumatologist and know there are reasons for my pain. Apparently there are areas where amyloid can build up in connective tissue and in bones. There is an arthritis that is associated with the build up of amyloid.

My rheumatologist suggested physical therapy for me. I am scheduled for my first treatment mid month. I am really looking forward to it! A friend that found me through one of the amyloidosis lists and has similar issues found physical therapy very helpful so I am looking forward to it. It appears that I don't have the bone pitting that seems associated with the arthritis like symptoms that amyloid can produce, but I do the soft tissue problems with connective tissues and inflammation. I also have bursitis in the hips that the first steroid shots in my hips helped.

I have some links to share. First are guidelines for identification of systemic amyloidosis organ and soft tissue involvement, and criteria for remission that the experts put together at the big conference in France a few years back. Although it came out in 2005, they are being circulated on the lists as the latest thing on the criteria for remission. I thought it was interesting and had some information that I was not familiar with. If interested, you can download a PDF at the link below (It automatically downloads it).

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/110573875/PDFSTART

Next is a link to Chris' Journey and fundraising for the Amyloidosis Foundation. A nice article about the bike ride Chris' son is doing to raise awareness can be found at:

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/x1556828605/Spitz-Son-is-riding-for-moms-life

You can read about the ride at:

http://chrisjourney.com/
Stay healthy my friends! I'll tell you all about the new puppy in another post.