Botox for Cancer? A New Study Shows Surprising Promise
An interesting study may use Botox’s wonderful anti-aging qualities to help treat certain types of cancer.
According to a team of researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Botox is being studied as a method that will essentially block nerve impulses that could lead to excess cell growth and thus cancer.
Why Botox?
Botox has a very surprising and versatile range of uses aside from a beauty product. Actually a deadly neurotoxin, Botox prevents wrinkles by blocking the nerve impulses to those muscles, rendering them paralyzed and immobile. This creates a smoother contour for the face.
Botox’s neurotoxin qualities are the very things that had scientists wondering if they could paralyze the neuron activity leading to tumor growth and thus halt the cancer. The team injected Botox at the actual site of the tumor, which theoretically, at least, should have stopped the growth impulses leading to the tumor.
What Botox Can Do for Cancer
The results from the research have been, so far, particularly promising. In research trials on mice, the tumors that received injections of Botox did indeed stop growing, as the Botox rendered the growth paralyzed.
Botox is likely to be used:
• In conjunction with chemotherapy, to enhance the effects of chemo
• To treat tumors resistant to chemotherapy
• On patients that cannot tolerate chemotherapy
While these findings are not currently available for human treatment, the effectiveness of Botox as a cancer treatment holds great promise.
What This Means
Thanks to the wide availability and ready supplies of Botox, if this becomes a reputable treatment, it could offer affordable cancer treatment for certain types of cancer, including stomach and prostate.
Additionally, if Botox is proven effective on humans, it could be used to stop the growth of a tumor in the very early stages without the need for surgery, thus offering a safer alternative to tumor removal.
Overall, this study may keep Botox very much in the public eye once again.
