fits of resveratrol are almost too numerous to count. This polyphenolic antioxidant compound, which is found naturally in red wine and grapes, has been shown to help fight the aging process, promote a healthy heart, and boost cellular energy output, among many other benefits. And specifically with regard to cancer, resveratrol has been shown in at least 10 scientific studies published in recent years to help ward off melanoma, a potentially deadly form of skin cancer.The National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimates that more than 75,000 new cases of melanoma emerge every year in the United States, and roughly 10,000 people die from the condition annually. The disease usually first shows up in the form of a mole or other oddly pigmented skin or tissue, including tissue found in the eyes and intestines, and spreads from there. And conventional medicine's only solution to melanoma is to blast it with chemotherapy or radiation.
But the science shows that there is another, safer option to not only prevent melanoma, but also to treat it without causing harmful side effects. Numerous peer-reviewed studies show that resveratrol not only blocks the growth and spread of melanoma, but also disrupts the activation and expression of certain proteins and other substances that feed and sustain this pervasive type of skin cancer.
Resveratrol possesses an amazing array of anti-cancer properties and mechanisms, studies show
A 2005 study published in the journal, Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, for instance, found that grape-derived resveratrol has an anti-proliferative effect on melanoma cancer cells -- anti-proliferative means that it blocks tumor cells from growing and spreading. Researchers from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at New York Medical College found that resveratrol has a unique ability to suppress cell growth in at least two different varieties of melanoma.
Three years later, in 2008, at least four separate studies also found that resveratrol, especially when injected for maximum bioavailability, inhibits the growth and spread of melanoma. One study out of the University of Wisconsin at Madison (UW-M) found that both oral and peritumor injection of resveratrol can help treat uveal melanoma, while another study out of the University of California, Irvine (UCI) identified a different mechanism by which resveratrol fights melanoma, in this case by disrupting a nitric oxide-generated feedback loop.
"These data suggest that resveratrol can inhibit tumor growth and can induce apoptosis (cell death) via the intrinsic mitochondrial pathway and that by further increasing bioavailability of resveratrol the potency of the [nutrient] can be increased, leading to tumor regression," wrote the authors of the UW-M study. "The nontoxic nature of the [nutrient] at levels needed for therapy make resveratrol an attractive candidate for the treatment of uveal melanoma."
Anti-cancer properties of resveratrol have been replicated in numerous scientific studies
Beyond this, a handful of other studies published in both 2010 and 2011 arrived at similar findings, affirming that resveratrol is, indeed, a powerful anti-cancer nutrient. Since replication is a key aspect of the scientific process, this cohort of data on the anti-cancer effects of resveratrol provides solid evidence that supplementation with therapeutic doses of this powerful nutrient may help prevent and treat melanoma, and thus curb a widespread public health epidemic.
"RESV (resveratrol) shows promise as a novel therapeutic in the management of melanoma for its selective anti-tumor activity in vitro," wrote the authors of a 2010 study on resveratrol that was published in The Journal of Surgical Research.
