UT Southwestern study finds tree bark cancer treatment promising

by John P. Meyer

In a study supported by the National Institutes of Health, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have confirmed that a substance in tree bark actually kills certain types of cancer cells while leaving surrounding healthy tissue unaffected. The findings may lead to a new scientifically-approved treatment for lung cancer, although herbalists (i.e., "not real doctors") seem to have known about the benefits of the bark juice for quite some time.

Dr. David Boothman and Dr. Erik Bey gaze with amusement on a box of something.

Of course, we're not talking about just any tree here - the bark in question comes from the South American lapacho tree, an Amazon rain forest native which - unfortunately - is popular with loggers because of the weight and durability of its wood. (It figures.)

Anyhow, Dr. David Boothman, Robert B. and Virginia Payne Professorship in Oncology at UT Southwestern, has authored a study to appear in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences which concludes that beta-lapachone (the bark extract) metabolizes with an enzyme in tumors with the result that it kills the cancerous cells without harming non-cancerous tissues. Which is what all good cancer treatments ought to do, really.

And we're talking about radically-observable results here, folks: in one test, Dr. Boothman dosed human tumor cells with synthesized beta-lapachone and saw the enzyme-specific cancer cells die out within two to four hours. (Die, cancer cells, DIE!) Furthermore, it turns out that radiation treatments raise the levels of target enzyme in the cancer cells, so a combination of radiation and beta-lapachone therapy is liable to result in - to quote the good doc - "a whopping kill."

Of course, none of this stuff can enter mainstream medicine until human clinical trials are done - some of which may involve "nanoparticle drug delivery methods" which carefully target the compound's application. (Unclear is why "nano-targeting" would be necessary if, as explained, the bark juice has no deleterious effect on non-cancerous tissue - but leave it to the medicos to over-engineer everything they deal with.)