Now, an enriched extract of the Somalian Frankincense herb Boswellia carteri has been shown to kill off bladder cancer cells. Research presented in the open access journal, BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine , demonstrates that this herb has the potential for an alternative therapy for bladder cancer.

Bladder cancer is twice as common in males as it is in females. In the US, bladder cancer is the fourth most common type of cancer in men, whilst in the UK it is the seventh most common cause of death amongst males.

HK Lin and his team, from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and Oklahoma City VA Medical Center, set out to evaluate frankincense oil for its anti-tumour activity in bladder cancer cells. The authors investigated the effects of the oil in two different types of cells in culture: human bladder cancer cells and normal bladder cells. The team found that frankincense oil is able to discriminate between normal and cancerous bladder cells in culture, and specifically kill cancer cells.

Gene expression analyses were performed to determine how frankincense oil affects bladder cancer cell survival. The team found that the oil suppresses cancer cell growth by arresting cell cycle progression and induces bladder cancer cell death by activating multiple cell death pathways.

Dr Lin said, "Frankincense oil may represent an inexpensive alternative therapy for patients currently suffering from bladder cancer."

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The fact that brain response to these tones was abnormal in these patients might indicate that the brain is not firing properly in the auditory cortex or that there is structural damage to that part of the brain, or both, although the study did not seek to determine why responses were abnormal, he said. The point was to find out if they were abnormal. The fact that they were suggests the researchers are on to something and that continued research is needed.

"The brainwave response to tones is a reductionistic measure," Salisbury explained. "It is a very simple brain event coming from a small part of the cortex, but represents an important function of the brain. It is much simpler than something as complex as a thought or memory, which likely involve many different brain functions across many different brain areas. Trying to find one gene related to a disordered thought is likely impossible. Finding one gene related to an early brain response occurring in a well defined part of the brain is much more likely."

Once specific gene subsets are identified, drugs can be tailored to patients with those subsets, he said.

"A drug therapy that might improve performance in one genetic pattern might actually impair performance in another," he said. "Having a better understanding of what the person's underlying pattern is can tailor the therapeutic intervention. This finding is interesting and shows it can be a tool for further genetic studies. The important implication is that we can use the brain waves to drive the genetic analysis."

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