A researcher at Saint Louis University is studying whether bitter melon extract can stop the spread of head and neck cancer (HNC).
Pathology professor Ratna Ray, PhD, received a $39,425 grant from the Lottie Caroline Hardy Charitable Trust to continue her research on treating cancer with natural substances such as bitter melon extract, which is often used in Indian and Chinese cooking and as a folk remedy for treating diabetes, according to the university.
Ray previously found the extract activated a pathway that triggered the death of breast cancer cells, stopping them from growing and spreading. She expanded her research on bitter melon to include prostate cancer prevention with funding from the National Institutes of Health.
In the next phase of her research, Ray will feed the extract to mice that have HNC to see if the substance sparks antitumor activity. If it stops the growth of cancer cells in animals, the findings could lay the groundwork for studying the treatment in a phase I clinical trial of human patients who have HNC, she said.
