Scientists from the University of Minnesota have been studying hard-to-treat pancreatic cancer. Conventional medicine currently offers little in the way of a cure.
The basic problem is that pancreatic cancer cells seem indestructible, and this is made worse by findings that pancreatic enzymes may play a role in regulating and defending against cancer cells around the body.
With an impaired pancreas, that defence may be lost.
A number of recent studies have shown that a ‘protection system’ in the human body for healthy cells is actually used by cancer cells to protect them too! This protection involves a protein GRP78, which is found in high levels in cancer cells.
The scientists however discovered that an extract from the Chinese herb Tirpterygium wilforii, called triptolide, not only regulated the protein, but inhibited its involvement with cancer cells.
This is not the first time that Cancer Watch has carried research on the anti-cancer benefits of this herb.