Frankincense therapy for bladder cancer

The medicinal benefits of frankincense may have been known for thousands of years, but scientists now believe the resin could help bladder cancer sufferers.

New research shows how frankincense oil – harvested and traded in Africa, India and the Middle East for about 5,000 years – can kill off cells infected with the disease.

HK Lin and his team from the University of Oklahoma presented their research in the open access journal BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine today.

The authors investigated the effects of the oil in two different types of cells in culture – human bladder cancer cells and normal bladder cells.

The team found that frankincense oil is able to discriminate between normal and cancerous bladder cells in culture and specifically kill cancer cells.

Gene expression analyses were performed to determine how frankincense oil affects bladder cancer cell survival.

The scientists found the oil suppresses cancer cell growth by arresting cell cycle progression and induces bladder cancer cell death by activating multiple cell death pathways.

Dr Lin said: “Frankincense oil may represent an inexpensive alternative therapy for patients currently suffering from bladder cancer.”