Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered that a component in green tea helps kill cells of the most common leukemia in the United States. The research using laboratory cell cultures shows that a component of green tea known as epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) [epi-gallo-cat-ekin-3-gal-ate] helps kill leukemia cells by interrupting the communication signals they need to survive. The findings are reported in an early electronic article in the journal Blood (http://www.bloodjournal.org/cgi/reprint/2003-08-2763v1).
