Bitter melon, aka karela, could help fight head and neck cancer

An Indian-origin scientist has claimed that bitter melon extract may have therapeutic qualities that are needed to treat head and neck cancer.

Ratna Ray, Ph.D. associate professor of pathology at Saint Louis University. Ray found that bitter melon extract, a vegetable commonly used in Indian and Chinese diets, reduces the head and neck cancer cell growth in the animal model.

She said that they wanted to see the effect of the bitter melon extract treatment on different types of cancer using different model systems, asserting that in this study, the bitter melon extract treatment suppressed the head and neck cancer cell growth in the mouse model, reducing the growth of the tumor.

In a controlled lab setting, Ray found that bitter melon extract regulated several pathways that helped reduce the head and neck cancer cell growth in the animal model. After a period of four weeks, Ray found that the growth and volume of the tumor had reduced.

The study findings have been published in the Public Library of Science One Journal.