>From John Hopkins at www.intelihealth.com comes this interesting article on
honey and its antibacterial properties, as it relates to tumors.
suzy
December 14, 2000CHICAGO (AP) - Provocative Turkish research suggests honey
salves could help prevent tumors from recurring after minimally invasive
surgery to treat colon cancer. Sporadic reports linking the surgery with
such tumors have tempered enthusiasm for the increasingly popular technique
and prompted an ongoing national study in the United States. While the
Turkish research was done in mice and no one expects hospitals to start
stocking operating rooms with honey jars, the sticky stuff has been used as a
folk remedy for healing since biblical times.
And a Mayo Clinic cancer expert says the results, though preliminary, are too
fascinating to be dismissed. The Turkish authors suggest honey might work as
a barrier to tumor cells when spread on the tiny incision sites used in what
is called laparoscopic surgery. The findings, based on a study of 60 mice,
are published in December's Archives of Surgery.
Dr. Tonia Young-Fadok, a Mayo Clinic surgeon participating in the U.S. colon
cancer study, says substances in honey might actually help dissolve tumor
cells.
"It's not clear what the power of honey is, but there's certainly something
here that's of interest," Young-Fadok said.
Laparoscopies are being used increasingly to treat a variety of conditions
that formerly required major operations. In such operations, thin surgical
instruments and a slender viewing tube called a laparoscope are inserted
through tiny incisions. Carbon dioxide gas injected into the abdomen inflates
a working space for surgeons. Young-Fadok said colon tumors are essentially
the only type of cancer laparoscopies have been used in, but they've become
controversial because of a few reports of tumors developing at the incision
site.
Other research has discounted the link, but concerns have "diminished the
widespread use of laparoscopy in malignant disease," the study authors wrote,
led by Dr. Ismail Hamzaoglu of Istanbul University. Some theorize the gas
used in such surgery might have an aerosol effect, causing cancer cells to
shift location, Young-Fadok said. Others suggest inexperienced surgeons might
inadvertently cause malignant cells to implant as they're attempting to
extract the tumor.
The National Institutes of Health study, in which Young-Fadok is a
co-investigator, will attempt to clarify whether any risk exists by comparing
results from laparoscopic colon cancer surgery with more invasive surgery.
In the Turkish study, researchers injected the mice with air, made neck
incisions and injected them with tumor cells. They spread honey on the
incisions in one group of mice before and after the tumor-cell injections.
All 30 mice without honey developed tumors, compared with only eight of the
30 honey-treated mice. The study is accompanied by comments from Chicago
plastic surgeon Dr. Thomas Mustoe, who notes that other research has
suggested honey has anti-bacterial properties and may be an effective
treatment for burns.
The study "highlights another potential use," Mustoe said.
