March 16, 2010
There are some anecdotal reports of patients who were cured of cancer from drinking tea extracts made from papaya leaves. But no one understood the mechanism for this protective effect.
A Research group out of Japan wanted to discover the health benefits of papaya in the fight against this deadly disease. In their lab studies, chemicals found in the papaya plant indirectly killed the cancer cells, or at least prevented them from growing further by enhancing the immune system. It was previously thought that the substances found in papaya worked directly on the cancerous cells.
Boosting or modifying the immune system to kill off cancerous cells has another big advantage - less side effects and harm to the good cells. The positive results from this study is very encouraging indeed. Animal and human studies are more than justified to confirm if papaya can be used in the fight against cancer.