A SECOND study has linked a popular plant-based menopause symptom-relief
product with a reduced risk of breast cancer.
The result of the study was published in the current edition of the medical journal
Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers.
A team of researchers led by Dr Nadia Obi, of the German Cancer Research Centre,
in the city of Heidelberg, examined breast cancer occurrence among a total of
10,121 women from different parts of Germany.
What they found was that women who used a popular black cohosh extract
menopause symptom relief medication called Remifemin had a reduced risk of
breast cancer in the order of 20 per cent.
Remifemin has been on the market since 1956 and has been available in Australia
over the counter since 1989.
The new study echoed work published in the International Journal of Cancer in
January, 2007, in which a team led by Professor Timothy Rebbeck, of the University
of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, reported that a broad-based population study of
women who used a range of natural menopause symptom relief products showed
that Remifemin users appeared to have a 53 per cent lower rate of breast cancer
than the control group who did not use anything at all.
At the time, Professor Rebbeck urged others to pursue research on the apparent link
to help to determine the nature and scope of the relationship between the use of
black cohosh extract and a reduced risk of breast cancer.
In the newly-published study, Dr Obi reported that a range of black cohosh products
were examined, but only the users of Remifemin were identified to have a reduced
risk of breast cancer.
Dr Obi also urged medical colleagues to do more work on the relationship between
black cohosh extract and an apparently reduced risk of breast cancer.
The apparent link to a lower risk of cancer may be explained by a study that was
published in the European medical journal Phytomedicine in 2008, which reported
that the chemical composition of the black cohosh extract in Remifemin triggered a
stress response in cancer cells that led to them dying.
The team was led by Dr Linda Saxe Einbond, of Columbia University.
Dr Einbond attributed the stress response to a chemical chain called triterpene
glycoside actein that was found within the black cohosh extract.
Media contact:
Carl D. Thompson
SciNat Australia
0438 750440
Referenced studies available upon request to: carl.thompson@plink.com.au
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