Denver, CO—Impressive data were published in Carcinogenesis showing grape seed extract killed cancer cells in mice and left healthy ones alone.

Researchers believe the extract creates the perfect conditions that discourage cancer cell growth. These include damage to cancer cells’ DNA and decreased the levels of molecules that enable its repair. The team said these results were accomplished without toxicity to the rats, suffered from head and neck cancers.

“I think the whole point is that cancer cells have a lot of defective pathways and they are very vulnerable if you target those pathways. The same is not true of healthy cells,” says Rajesh Agarwal, Ph.D., investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmaceutical Sciences says.

The group received grants from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and from the National Cancer Institute.

Published in WholeFoods Magazine, March 2012 (online 1/31/12)