Common garden weed 'cures skin cancer', say scientists

Last updated at 4:41 AM on 26th January 2011

A common weed could help cure skin cancers, claim researchers.

The sap from a plant known as petty spurge or milkweed - found by roadsides
and in woodland - can 'kill' certain types of cancer cells when applied to the
skin.

It works on non-melanoma skin cancers, which affect hundreds of thousands of
Britons each year.

They are triggered by sun damage and, although not usually fatal, can be
disfiguring without treatment.

The plant has been used for centuries as a traditional folk medicine to treat
conditions such as warts, asthma and several types of cancer.

But for the first time a team of scientists in Australia has carried out a
clinical study of sap from Euphorbia peplus, which is related to Euphorbia
plants grown in gardens in the UK.

The study of 36 patients with a total of 48 non-melanoma lesions included
basal cell carcinomas (BCC), squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) and intraepidermal
carcinomas (IEC), a growth of cancerous cells confined to the outer layer of the
skin.

Patients had failed to respond to conventional treatment including surgery,
or they refused or were unsuitable for surgery because of their age.

The patients were treated once a day for three consecutive days by an
oncologist using a cotton bud to apply enough of the E.peplus sap to cover the
surface of each lesion.

The initial results were impressive, says findings to be released this week
in the British Journal of Dermatology.

After only one month 41 of the 48 cancers had completely gone.

Patients who had some of the lesions remaining were offered a second course
of treatment.

After an average of 15 months following treatment, two thirds of the 48 skin
cancer lesions were still showing a complete response.

Of the three types of skin cancer tested, the final outcome was a 75 per cent
complete response for IEC lesions, 57 per cent for BCC and 50 per cent for SCC
lesions.

Side-effects were low, with 43 per cent of patients in no pain as a result of
the treatment and only 14 per cent reporting moderate pain, and only one patient
encountered severe short-term pain.

In all cases of successful treatment the skin was left with a good cosmetic
appearance.

The researchers, from a number of medical institutions in Brisbane, attribute
the benefit to the active ingredient ingenol mebutate which has been shown to
destroy tumour cells.

British experts said further studies were needed and people should not try
this at home as the weed sap can be harmful to the eyes and should not be eaten.

More than 76,500 people are diagnosed with non-melanoma skin cancer in the UK
each year, with 90 per cent caused by ultraviolet light exposure.

Lesions usually appear on the areas most exposed to the sun, such as the
head, neck, ears, and back of the hands.

Kimberley Carter of the British Association of Dermatologists said: 'This is
a very small test group so it will be interesting to see what larger studies and
the development of the active ingredient in E. peplus sap will reveal.

'Whilst it would not provide an alternative to surgery for the more invasive
skin cancers or melanoma, in the future it might become a useful addition to the
treatments available to patients for superficial, non-melanoma skin cancers.

'Any advances that could lead to new therapies for patients where surgery is
not an option are definitely worth investigating.

'It is also very important to note that this is definitely not a treatment
people should be trying out at home.

'Exposure of the sap to mucous producing surfaces, such as the eyes, results
in extreme inflammation and can lead to hospitalisation.

'The concentration of the active ingredients in the sap also varies between
different plants, with high doses able to cause very severe and excessive
inflammatory responses.'

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