Honey May Prevent Recurring Tumors
“A provocative Turkish study suggests that using honey as an ointment during a certain type of colon-cancer surgery can help prevent tumors from recurring.”
“While the research was done in mice and no one expects hospitals to start stocking operating rooms with honey jars, honey has been used as a folk remedy for healing since biblical times.
And a Mayo Clinic cancer expert said the results, though preliminary, are too fascinating to be dismissed.”
The Turkish researchers suggest honey might work as a barrier to tumor cells when it is spread in the incisions.
It's not clear what the power of honey is, but there's certainly something here that's of interest,''
Dr. Young-Fadok said.
In the Turkish study, led by Dr. Ismail Hamzaoglu of Istanbul University, rearchers injected the mice with air, made neck incisions and injected the animals with tumor cells then either smeared honey at site or not.
All 30 mice without honey developed tumors, compared with only eight of the 30 honey-treated mice.
In a commentary accompanying the study, Chicago plastic surgeon Dr. Thomas Mustoe noted that other research has suggested honey has anti-bacterial properties and may be an effective treatment for burns.
The study “highlights another potential use,” Mustoe said. Dec 2004, Archives of Surgery.
