Red wine aids breast cancer treatment, study says

The researchers found that resveratrol a natural chemical present in red wine can boost a common breast cancer drug in supressing cancer cells. The discovery was made at the Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute.

Study particulars
When the breast cancer drug rapamycin was teamed up with resveratrol, the drug was better able to inhibit growing breast cancer cells than when the drug acted alone.

The findings are noteworthy because certain cancer cells have been known to develop resistance agianst the breast cancer drug rapamycin. When resveratrol was added, the anti-tumour effects of the drug got significantly enhanced.

Charis Eng, MD, Ph.D., Chair of the Genomic Medicine Institute of Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute and the lead researcher, said, "Our findings show that resveratrol seems to mitigate rapamycin-induced drug resistance in breast cancers, at least in the laboratory.

If these observations hold true in the clinic setting, then enjoying a glass of red wine or eating a bowl of boiled peanuts – which has a higher resveratrol content than red wine – before rapamycin treatment for cancer might be a prudent approach."

Rapamycin is an immunosuppressant drug, which means that it is commonly used in pateints during organ transplanations to avoid organ rejection.

It is used in breast cancer treatment as it has shown good efficacy against breast cancer cells. Despite its anti-tumor effect, rapamycin does not seem to be equally effective against all kinds of breast cancer cells.

About resveratrol
Resveratrol is polyphenol found in the skin of red grapes and in peanuts.

The combination of resveratrol and rapamycin demonstated 50 percent reduction in breast cancer cell growth.

Previous researches on resveratrol have shown promising results in lung cancer patients where the chemical was found to significantly inhibit cancerous tissue growth.