Research explains tea treatment

NEW YORK - Scientists have discovered why tea extracts help repair skin damage, a finding that may benefit cancer patients who suffer skin problems from radiotherapy.

Dr Frank Pajonk from the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California's Los Angeles campus said tea extracts were a traditional remedy for sunburn, and had been used successfully to treat the effect of radiation damage.

But until now there had been no data to explain how it worked. The researchers found that tea extracts affect the body signals that trigger inflammation.

In a study reported in the journal BMC Medicine, the researchers analysed the effects of green or black tea extracts given to 60 patients with skin damage related to radiotherapy for head and neck cancers and cancer in the pelvic region.

Dr Pajonk said more studies were needed to compare tea extract therapy with standard treatments for radiation-induced skin damage.

- REUTERS