Medicinal herb helps treat liver inflammation

The research carried out by Elena Ladas and her colleagues from the Columbia University Medical Center found that the herb had no side effects and was effective in treating the damage to the liver after cancer treatment.

It may be noted that liver inflammation is caused by the drugs used in the Chemotherapy treatment and often the only cure is lowering of the dosage or stopping the treatment.

Particulars of the study and findings
The researchers conducted the study on 50 children who were divided into two groups. Group one was given the herb while group two was not. The children were analyzed after 28 days to reach at the study findings.

All the 50 kids in the study were diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and had liver inflammation due to increase in levels of the liver enzymes, aspartate amino transferase (AST) and amino alanine transferase (ALT).

At the end of the research period, the levels of these liver enzymes were measured again and the levels had lowered down in group one kids while there was no difference found in the other group who did not receive the herb dose.

“Chemotherapy doses were reduced in 61% of those on milk thistle, compared to 72% in the placebo group. Milk thistle appeared to be safe for consumption,” informs Elena Ladas, the lead author of the present study.

More research needed on effectiveness of the herb
The study of the herb and its effect with chemotherapy on leukemia cells in the laboratory showed that the herb did not interfere with the chemotherapy treatment in fighting the cancer and only showed effect on controlling inflammation of the liver.

Kara Kelly from the New York-Presbyterian Hospital and co author of the present study says, “Milk thistle needs to be studied further to see how effective it is for a longer course of treatment and whether it works well in reducing liver inflammation in other types of cancers and with other types of chemotherapy.”

“If these results are confirmed, milk thistle may allow us to treat liver inflammation or prevent it from occurring, which will allow better delivery of chemotherapy drugs,” she continues.

The present research and its findings have been published in the December 14 online edition of ‘Cancer’.