Vitamin B17: A Scientifically-Backed Cancer Treatment?

If you want to guard your wellbeing against cervical cancer, apricots can help you do it. This is according to a study recently published in Immunopharmacology and Immunotoxicology, which found that vitamin B17 or amygdaline or laetrile found in apricot kernels reduce uncontrollable growth of cancer cells.

Led by Fan Li from the Department of Bethune College of Medicine at the Jilin University in Changchun, China, the team of researchers discovered that amygdaline induces apoptosis in vitro and in vivo in human cervical cancer cells. Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, is a process which is usually missing in cancer cells. This is why cancer cells grow uncontrollably, but if this vitamin can induce apoptosis in cells of this kind, amygdaline could potentially be used to treat cervical cancer.

In their study, which was performed in animals, the Chinese scientists also discovered that, by inducing apoptosis, amygdaline manages to inhibit the growth of HeLa cell xenografts. This led the researchers to conclude by saying, ‘The results in the present study suggest that amygdaline may offer a new therapeutic option for patients with cervical cancer.’ However, the researchers also pointed out that this needs to be confirmed in clinical trials.

This is not the first study to suggest that the vitamin could potentially treat cancer. According to a study published last year in the Indian Journal of Pathology and Microbiology, amygdaline inhibits angiogenesis, a process which cancer, and other conditions such as diabetes, needs to develop. Led by H. Mirmiranpour of the Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran, the researchers induced diabetes in rats, giving one group injections of amygdaline as treatment.

When the scientists monitored the process of angiogenesis in the rats’ aortic arteries, they found that the amygdaline-treated cells contained the lowest number of primary microtubules and microvessels. The researchers said this suggests ‘amygdaline exerts inhibitory effects on angiogenesis in aortic rings of diabetic rats.’ Angiogenesis is a process which generates new blood vessels, and is vital for cancer growth. Therefore, if amygdaline can inhibit this process, the vitamin may be effective in treating certain kinds of cancer, and this may be why complementary wellness experts already use amygdaline for cancer prevention and treatment.