December 14, 2009 - The substances in milk thistle plant may help treat liver inflammation in patients with cancer chemotherapy, a new study.

The equipment in the period of 2000 years of struggle against a number of diseases can be used, protection against liver damage from chemotherapy, the researchers say in Cancer, the journal of the American Cancer Society.

Chemotherapeutic agents can cause inflammation of the liver, and doctors often have to set final, lower doses of patients or the administration of treatments, researchers say.

Previous studies have investigated whether milk thistle may be used for the treatment of liver damage from hepatitis and liver cirrhosis, researchers say.

Investigate Elena Ladas, MS, RD, Columbia University Medical Center and his colleagues decided to determine whether milk thistle may help treat people with liver disease associated with chemotherapy.

A study in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) with liver toxicity associated with chemotherapy. The researchers recruited 50 children, and participants were randomized to receive either milk thistle or receive placebo for 28 days.

The children were first signs of inflammation of the liver, as measured by higher blood levels of liver enzymes, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT).

The researchers measure the liver enzymes in all children on day 56, including 28 days of receipt or milk thistle herb or placebo. Children who had received milk thistle to improve their liver enzyme levels than children in the placebo group.

Young people who get the milk thistle would have a significantly lower levels of AST and a clear tendency to lower ALT levels, researchers say.

Milk Thistle seemed to help the number of patients, reduce the dose of chemotherapy drugs to.

Doses of chemotherapy was reduced by 61% of the milk thistle, compared to 72% in the placebo group. Milk Thistle appeared to be safe for human consumption, the researchers write.

The researchers also studied the effects of milk thistle with chemotherapy for leukemia cells in the laboratory and found that not affect the herb with chemotherapy for cancer properties.

"Milk Thistle is a need to investigate further to see how it is effective in treatment longer, and if they succeed in reducing the inflammation of the liver in other types of cancer and other types of chemotherapy," says co - Investigator Kara Kelly, MD, New York Presbyterian Hospital.

The researchers concluded that scientists have begun to better understand how milk thistle in the last two decades. It is in the United States as a dietary supplement, but more often that parlayed its effects on the liver.

"This is the first milk, randomized, controlled clinical study the feasibility and safety of facilities based on thistle heads study," the researchers write, in combination with chemotherapy in children treated for cancer. "