Study after study confirms the effectiveness of dandelion root extract producing apoptosis in vitro cancer cells – in effect, manipulating them to commit a programmed molecular suicide. However, there is not a single instance of this being confirmed in clinical trials involving human subjects.
In vitro is Latin and translates to “within the glass.” This research method isolates cancer cells in test tubes or uses test animals bred with selected traits, typically mice, to investigate a potential therapeutic compound. The test cells and treatment are thus unaffected by the biological dynamics of the human body: metabolism, side effects, patient safety, nutrition, dosage, pharmakinetics, efficacy, and other factors.
Dandelion root extract has been of interest for biomedicalinvestigation for its high content of the antioxidants believed to be core tothe body’s fighting damaging “free radical” cells and the key element in greentea health benefits. It is rich in nutritional compounds that researchersbelieved combine to make dandelion root a potential cancer fighter. It has a longuse in traditional medicine, especially the thousands of years of recorded Chinesepractice as a digestive aid.
Starting around 2010, lab experimentation generated strikingevidence that dandelion root extract does indeed kill off cancer cells. The“tea” is simply a delivery vehicle for the dandelion root extract. Most of thework was pioneered by a team at the University of Windsor in Canada. It was reportedin well-regarded academic journals and the researchers were enthusiastic aboutthe possibilities it presents.
Here are examples of the in vitro findings:
Colon cancer cells: 95% apoptosis.
Pancreatis: cancer cells killed off with no impact on healthycells.
Stomach cancer: reduction in cell growth.
Leukemia and melanoma: kills cancerous cells in laboratorymice.
These are obviously striking but just about every scientific paper on the topic carefully emphasizes that these are lab results and includes “in vitro” in any discussion or description. They earned the Windsor research center grants to extend its work to in vivo clinical trials: “within the body.” These are rigorously defined objectives, procedures and metrics in three formal stages for a compound to be accepted for Food and Drug Administration review as a new drug.
The Windsor team was funded for Stage I/II trials, withplans announced in 2012 for recruiting a test group of 30 patients. In 2015these remained a plan. In 2017, the researchers expressed public concerns thattheir initial work had generated many falseInternet claims about dandelion tea being a proven “anti-cancerpowerhouse”.
By 2019, no clinical trial results have been reported.Research publications have dried up and the efficacy of dandelion tea hasbecome part of “medicinal myth.” Just one of the many hundreds of claims of invivo success based only on the in vitro findings is “Dandelion:The Plant 100 Times More Effective Than Chemotherapy.” There arescattered anecdotalexamples of a single individual whose cancer suddenly disappeared: that may or maynot be the case but there is no justification for leaping from the case to thelab findings to medical practice.
Snopes.com uses almost the same phrasing as the MemorialSloan-Kettering Cancer Center, a leading research institution “No firmscientific or medical evidence supports dandelion root as aneffective treatment for cancer.” “Dandelionhas not been shown to treat or prevent cancer.”
The gap between the lab and the human patient tests is in noway unusual. PharmaceuticalResearch and Manufacturers of America summarize the development pathto produce one new registered drug:
Discovery: 5-10,000 compounds that show potential for study
Preclinical research (The dandelion root extract labstudies): 250 successes
Clinical trials: 5 successes
FDA review: 1 approval.
An example of the many factors that turn a lab positive intoa clinical trial failure is the finding that while dandelion root extract killsoff breast cancer cells in the test tube, in the body it may increase theirgrowth because they are hormone-sensitive and affected by estrogen activity. Dandeliontea is known to increase urination and decrease blood sugar levels. None ofthese show up in the lab test tube.
SOURCES: Google Scholar abstracts, journal articles and research citations, Snopes, University of Windsor, Sloan-Kettering web site