Can chewing gum cure mouth and throat cancer?
That's the claim of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania. This is not just any gum. It's a chewing gum made using a special scientific method, which claims to destroy cancer cells when mixed with saliva.
The method of treating cancer by chewing gum is new, so there is a lot of curiosity about the research. Not medicine, not injection, not any radiotherapy method, just chewing gum will be 'magic'. That is the claim of Henry Daniel, a researcher at the School of Dental Medicine under the University of Pennsylvania, and his colleagues. They have created the chewing gum by mixing various vegetable proteins in biotechnology, which is claimed to have the ability to destroy cancer. Henry is also being helped in this work by several researchers at the University of California. The news of this research has been published in the journal 'Scientific Reports'.
Various viruses are responsible for oral cavity cancer or throat cancer. Basically, three types of viruses can cause cancer if they settle in saliva. Human papillomavirus (HPV), Porphyromonas gingivalis and Fusobacterium nucleatum - these three types of viruses are the root of all evil. They mix with saliva and from there reach the throat through the esophagus and respiratory tract and poison the entire area. As a result, abnormal and irregular growth and division of the cells there starts, which takes the form of cancer. Therefore, to stop the growth of cancer cells, it is necessary to destroy the viruses. It has been claimed that the biomedical chewing gum will do just that.
The gum is made from vegetable proteins. Researcher Henry Johny said that a type of protein called 'FRIL' has been mixed into the chewing gum, which has the ability to destroy cancer cells. In addition, an anti-microbial peptide called 'Protegrin' has been mixed into it to stop the violence of the virus. It can only attack and destroy harmful viruses and bacteria in the oral cavity. It has been tested on saliva samples of people with oral or head and neck cancer, and it has been found that the proteins in the chewing gum can reduce the incidence of cancer by about 93 percent. They can also be effective in preventing not only viruses, but also any fungal infection inside the mouth.
The chewing gum is being tested on cancer patients. Researchers say that if all goes well, it could be used not only in the treatment of oral cancer but also as a preventative measure to prevent cancer in the future.
