Ginseng Shows Benefit in Cancer Treatment

　　1. Flaxseed slowed the growth of prostate tumors in men, while ginseng helped relieve the fatigue that cancer patients often feel, US researchers reported on Saturday in two of the first scientifically rigorous looks at alternative medicine1.

　　2. The studies reflect doctors’ efforts to explore the risks and benefits of foods and supplements that are routinely taken by their patients with little scientific proof they help. 2 Americans spend between $ 36 billion and $47 billion a year on complementary and alternative therapies, according to the National Center for Health Statistics3. “Patients are taking these compounds but we need to know if they are doing any good or any harmt4” said Dr. Bruce Cheson of Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, who led a panel on alternative therapies at a meeting of the American Society of Clinica Oncology5.

　　3. In the flaxseed study, researchers at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina and colleagues evaluated the seed’s role as a food supplement in 161 men who were scheduled to undergo surgery for prostate cancer. “The growth rate was decreased in the men who got flaxseed,”said Dr. Nancy Davidson, an oncologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who is president-elect of ASCO. “I think this is fascinating.” Flaxseed is rich in omega-3 fatty acids and lignins, a fiber found on the seed coat. “We were looking at flaxseed because of its unique nutrient profile,” said Wendy Demark-Wahnefried, a researcher in Duke’s School of Nursing, who led the study.

　　4. Half of the men in the study added 30 grams of flaxseed daily to their diets for about 30 days. Half of the flaxseed group also went on a low-fat diet. After the surgery, the researchers looked at the men’s tumor cells to see how quickly the cancer had multiplied. The cancer ceils in both the flaxseed groups grew about 30 to 40 percent slower than the control group6.

　　5. But Demark-Wahnefried is not ready to prescribe flaxseed. “It’s a healthy food. It has a lot of vitamins and a lot of fiber. But we can not definitively say at this point you should take flaxseed because it is protective against prostate cancer,” she said, adding that flaxseed now needed to be studied to see if it can prevent prostate cancer.

　　6. In the ginseng trial, Debra Barton of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues tested three different doses of the herb on patients with a variety of cancers who were expected to live at least six months. Twenty-five percent of patients taking a 1,000-rug dose and twenty-seven percent of patients taking a 2,000-mg dose said their fatigue symptoms were “moderately better” or “much better.” Only 10 percent of those taking a 750-mg dose reported an improvement, which was about the same as the placebo group. Patients in the trial took Wisconsin ginseng from a single crop that was tested for uniform potency. It was powdered and given in a capsule form. “I wouldn’t have predicted this, I have to admit,” Davidson said in an interview. “We might want to test this on a large scale7.”

　　7. The flaxseed study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the ginseng study was supported by US Public Health Service grants.

　　练习：

　　1. Paragraph 2______.

　　2. Paragraph 4______.

　　3. Paragraph 5______.

　　4. Paragraph 6______.

　　A The Motivation of Flaxseed Study

　　B The Study on Ginseng Displays Its Good Promise

　　C The Doctors' Responsibility Led Them to Carry Out These Two Studies

　　D Ginseng Is As Good to Cancer Patients As Flax seed

　　E The Methods and Results of the Study on Flax- seed

　　F A different opinion on the use of flaxseed

　　5. Doctors in the US wanted to know______.

　　6. Both studies on flaxseed and ginseng show______.

　　7. It is the unique nutrient profile of flaxseed______.

　　8. In the ginseng trial the researchers tested the potency of ginseng______.

　　A that led the researchers in Duke's School of Nursing to study it

　　B by giving different doses of the herb to patients with different cancers

　　C whether the foods and supplements patients took every day were good or not

　　D though both flaxseed and ginseng are all healthy alternative medicines

　　E that either of them is beneficial to cancer patients

　　F because we still have to see if flaxseed can prvent prosate caancer

　　答案与题解：

　　1.C 　本段第一句及最后一句说得很清楚，医生必须了解病人所吃的东西究竟有益还是有害。

　　2.E 　本段第一、二句是研究方法，而第三、四句则是研究结果。

　　3.F 　此段说到，有一位医生不愿意将亚麻籽作为药物开在处方里，因为她认为目前还需要继续研究，看看它是否能预防前列腺癌，尽管他也承认亚麻籽是健康食品。

　　4.B 　本段第二句说到，服用1000毫克剂量的病人中，25%的人的疲劳症状有中度改善，而服用2000毫克的病人中，27%的人的疲劳症状大大改善，可见人参有很好的前景。

　　5.C 　本题答案来源于第二段第一句及最后一句。

　　6.E 　本题答案根据是第四段最后一句及第六段第二句。

　　7.A 　本题答案在第三段最后一句。

　　8.B 　本题答案来源于第六段第一句。

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