LEXINGTON, Ky.-- The UK Markey Cancer Center has officially launched a new clinical trial that could prevent ovarian cancer.
“This plant it's called Artemisia Annua. It's also known as Sweet Wormwood or Annual Sage,” said Patrick Perry, research coordinator with the Kentucky Tobacco Research & Development Center at the University of Kentucky.
His team is growing acres and acres of this Southeast Asian plant to help with an upcoming clinical trial at the UK Markey Cancer Center.
“This plant is the number one producer of the anti-malarial drug, and through a bunch of research we found out that it could potentially have some effects against certain types of cancers,” Perry said.
The study is small right now says Jill Koselar at the UK College of Pharmacy overseeing the trial planning to study 18 to 21 women initially.
“This is a small trial to determine the dose and a small trial to make sure people can tolerate it, and a small trial to see if there's some preliminary evidence that there's activity,” Koselar said. “If there's preliminary evidence of activity of good effect anti-cancer effect then we would go ahead and we would move on to a larger trial.”
She said extracts from the plant will be mixed into a coffee blend for patients to try.
“What we're doing now is we're studying the anti-cancer activities of that plant,” Koselar said.
“It's formulated by our Artemi Life where they blend it in with decaf coffee. So you know because people are going to be drinking more than one cup a day so we don't want to give anybody the jitters. So it's a combination of the coffee which kind of masks the bitter taste of the Artemisia in a K-cup pod.”
Kentucky is the only state currently growing substantial quantities of Artemisia Annua, meaning the Commonwealth could become a new hub for growing the plant.
“It positions Kentucky as a possible epicenter for Artemisia annual production in the united states to support any, you know upcoming findings that might come out of this clinical research, and that's going to be an opportunity to merge agricultural sciences and production with hard core medical research, and that to me is very, very exciting,” Perry said.
Perry said Artemisia Annua grows very similarly to tobacco. This could position Kentucky farmers to easily switch crops if needed.
“From the greenhouse to the field, you're able to use the same equipment the same infrastructure, and that also positions Kentucky producers in a very favorable position because of their experience and know-how it's a backhoe to really get this crop off the ground if it's needed in the future,” Perry said.
As of this year, the American Cancer Society estimates more than 13,000 women will die from ovarian cancer.