Cancer Prevention with Green Tea Polyphenols for the General Population, and for Patients Following Cancer Treatment

Green tea is now known to be the most effective beverage for cancer prevention, and evidence of this was recently extended to clinical applications. This paper briefly reviews several topics with regard to the development of our study on cancer prevention with green tea, and proposes a strategy for two-stages of cancer prevention with green tea. The topics are : 1) introduction of our initial work on (-)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), the main constituent of Japanese green tea; 2) cancer preventive effects of EGCG and green tea extract, the lyophilized form of green tea infusion; 3) bioavailability of 3H-EGCG in mice; 4) delay of cancer onset by drinking 10 Japanese-size cups of green tea per day; 5) a prototype study for developing green tea beverage supplemented with green tea tablets by 102 healthy volunteers; 6) cancer prevention before cancer onset for the general population and high risk groups; 7) cancer prevention for patients following cancer treatment; 8) an example of a clinical trial looking toward prevention of cancer recurrence in the liver; and 9) possible prevention of human lung cancer. Considering all the above, green tea is a multi-, non-toxic cancer preventive for humans: It is nature's remedy.