Hypericin for Brain Cancer?

A compound from St. John’s wort has shown promise in a preliminary brain tumor trial. Hypericin, an active component of this medicinal herb, had shown activity against glioma cells in the laboratory. Approximately 10,000 people are diagnosed with such a brain tumor in this country annually; only about half of them are still alive a year after diagnosis.
Scientists made a synthetic copy of hypericin and gave it to a small number of patients with recurrent glioma tumors. About 40 percent of the patients in the study were able to continue taking hypericin for three months. Half of those who took it for at least two months got a response. There is still a lot of research to be done before this will be a useful treatment, but it is a promising start for a devastating cancer.

[Cancer, online March 31, 2011]