Ginseng has often had big health claims made for it that lack scientific backing. But a large study indicates that it may boost the survival rates of women who have had breast cancer diagnosed.

The root has been used for more than 2,000 years in Chinese medicine and studies show that it contains more than 30 chemicals, called ginsenosides. In lab tests these have shown the ability to inhibit tumour cells. But clinical evidence of this effect has been sorely lacking.

Now the American Journal of Epidemiology reports how a ten-year study of 1,455 breast cancer patients found that those who had taken ginseng regularly before breast cancer was diagnosed had higher survival rates.

The research, by the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Centre in Nashville, studied women in Shanghai. It found that ginseng usage more than doubled among women who were given a breast cancer diagnosis. All the women also received Western therapies, such as surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

The women who started taking ginseng after being told that they had breast cancer reported that it improved their quality of life. However, only those who had already been taking it benefited from improved survival rates.

TimesOnline.co.uk
by John Naish
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