A few weeks ago, we wrote about an animal study in which an extract from the dandelion root inhibits an aggressive form of colon cancer. We found a few abstracts in which oncologists saw the same thing happen in people with leukemia. The patients had started drinking dandelion tea on their own initiative.

Case study
In the fall of 2011, Canadian oncologists Caroline Hamm and Sindu Kanjeekal published an abstract in Blood, describing the case of a 70-year-old man in whom oncologists diagnosed an aggressive variant of leukemia. [Blood. 2011 Nov 18;118(21):4288.]

The man has acute myeloid leukemia M5 [AML-M5]. In this disease, the bone marrow produces increasingly large amounts of a rogue type of immune cell that the body cannot utilize effectively. Consequently, the production of functional immune cells, red blood cells, and platelets is compromised. The ultimate result is severe anemia, infection, and high fever.

Doctors initially treat the man with chemotherapy, but fail to bring the leukemia under control. Younger people receive a bone marrow transplant in such cases, but the man is too old for that. According to statistics, he has only a few months left to live.

At the academic hospital treating the man, several oncologists are conducting in vitro experiments and animal studies in which an extract from the roots of the common dandelion inhibits cancer cells. When the man hears about this, he starts drinking dandelion root tea of ​​his own accord. And that has an effect.

In the man's bone marrow, the amount of monoblasts - roughly the rogue immune cells - had been approximately halved within a month. Six months later, doctors found virtually none of them left.

The man's blood normalized. The levels of platelets, red blood cells, and immune cells remained on the low side. There was no question of a cure, but the diagnosis changed. The man no longer has AML-M5, but chronic myelomonocytic leukemia type 2 [CMML-2].

CMML-2 is not acutely dangerous. However, patients often suffer from fatigue due to mild anemia or chronic inflammation. Sometimes they are short of breath or, if they have a small wound, have a tendency to bleed for a long time.

The man's quality of life is good.

Another abstract
We read how the man fares in an abstract that Hamm and Kanjeekal published two years later. [Blood. 2013 Nov 15;122(21):5216.]

The leukemia has been in remission for four years. The man drinks three cups of tea every day. If he does not do this, or if he reduces his intake, the disease becomes more active and the number of defective stem cells in his bone marrow increases again.

The man may be an exceptional case, as we conclude from the second abstract. In it, the Canadians describe three other cases of leukemia patients who started drinking dandelion root tea on their own initiative. In all cases, dandelion seems to slow down the disease, but not as spectacularly as in the man we described in this web message.

Trial
In both abstracts, Hamm and Kanjeekal state that they are working on a trial in which they will administer dandelion tea or extract to cancer patients. As far as we know, that trial never materialized. In any case, we find no mention of it on clinicaltrials.gov.

Too bad.