Lee Swanson Research Update

Melatonin As A Potential Cancer Therapy

March 2006

Melatonin

A meta-analysis of trials on melatonin as a therapy for treating solid-tumor cancers has yielded some very encouraging findings-the hormone may reduce the risk of death from solid-tumor cancers.

Ten randomized clinical trials were reviewed, covering a total of 643 patients with various types of solid-tumor cancers including: lung; brain; skin; renal; and breast cancers. The effects of large doses of melatonin (ranging from 10 to 40 mg per day) on one-year survival were assessed and it was found that the hormone reduced the risk of death by 34%. The treatment was predominantly safe while having a beneficial effect on patients' sleep patterns.

All of the clinical trials in this analysis were from Europe and were written by a connected network of researchers in Italy and Poland. The authors of the current analysis said that clinical trials on melatonin should have been done in the United States back in the late 1960s because of the consistent results of this group of trials.

Journal of Pineal Research 39(4):360-366, 2005

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