[Eric Hofacket]

Re: Myeloma and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)

by Eric Hofacket on Mon Feb 23, 2015 3:08 pm

RT,

Myeloma and the drugs used to treat it can be rough on the body and I do believe that good diet and nutrition can help. I believe that the foods eaten can work with, or against, the chemotherapy treatments, and this is something that is not addressed by lot.

I would be cautious though. Green tea is something that is often advocated as having anti­cancer properties. Three years ago when I got my initial myeloma diagnosis, I had friends and family who brought this up and suggested I should drink green tea or take green tea supple­ments. I am not sure if you are familiar with Velcade yet, but it is one of the main drugs used to treat myeloma for initial therapy. Some years ago, researchers who were investigating possible synergetic effects with taking green tea with Velcade found just the opposite. Green tea completely renders Velcade ineffective. When I was started on Velcade, I was given written instructions to not drink any green tea or take any green tea supplements. Many other Beacon readers have been told the same, and there are discussion threads on green tea and Velcade on the Beacon if you want more information about this.

Now that I am not taking Velcade, I do drink green tea and have taken green tea supplements. A few years ago, the Beacon had an article on Japanese researchers who discovered how one of the active cancer agents in green tea kills myeloma cells in their in vitro (out of the body) experiments. There is a green tea compound that disrupts the outer cell membrane of myeloma cells but does not affect healthy cells. They could see it do this using an electron microscope.

So, if green tea kills myeloma cells in a petri dish, does this mean it has the same effect in the body when it is consumed as tea or as a supplement pill? I do not know, but as long as Velcade is not being used, I do not see what I could hurt.