Jash Botanicals Natural Health Corner

What is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in women and the second most commonly diagnosed gynecologic cancer?  If you said ovarian cancer, you were absolutely correct.

Herbal remedies, for example gingko biloba, have generated attention for their possible preventative effects.  Unfortunately, there had been a “lack of scientific evidence” to confirm their application for this purpose.

The good news is that Doctor Bin Ye and his colleagues from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston have discovered that gingko biloba was one herbal supplement that had a tangible effect on ovarian cancer.  It was also found that the preventative effect was more evident in women with non-mucinous ovarian cancers.

Based on the data, the consensus is that women who took gingko supplements had a 60 percent lower risk of ovarian cancer.  Doctor Bin Ye stated that, “4.2 percent of ovarian cancer-free women reported taking gingko regularly for at least six months before diagnosis, but only 1.6 percent of women with ovarian cancer reported taking ginkgo.  This suggests that women who are using gingko may be less likely to develop ovarian cancer.”

Doctor Bin and his team procured their evidence and proceeded to take it to the lab.  They wanted to see whether or not gingko, when introduced to ovarian cancer cells, would interfere with cell growth.  During the (in vitro) experiments, it was confirmed that a low dosage of gingkolide caused ovarian cells to stop growing.  The researchers witnessed an 80 percent growth reduction in non-mucinous ovarian cancer cells.  Unfortunately, gingkolides seemed to be less effective against the mucinous type of ovarian cancer cells, which correspond to the findings seen in the epidemiological study.

Doctor Daniel Cramer, MD, ScD and director of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Epidemiology Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital said, “Ovarian cancer is a fatal disease, often only detected in the most advanced stages, so there is an enormous effort to look at new methods of prevention, treatment and early detection.  This is an exciting finding that we will pursue further to better understand what clinical recommendations can be made to women regarding gingko use as a means of ovarian cancer prevention.”

It is also advised that women who run the risk of ovarian cancer and want to try using gingko biloba as a preventative should first check with their physician to make sure that it does not interact with other medications they may be taking.

Source: Brigham & Womens Hospital, October 31, 2005