Can hot water with pineapple kill cancer cells? Fact Check

WhatsApp messages have been sharing several claims on cancer cure using several rare fruit juices and this time a claim that hot pineapple water can kill cancer cells has been circulating in multiple posts on WhatsApp.

It reads: “Hot Pineapple Water can save you for a lifetime” and “Hot Pineapple can kill cancer cells!”

A request for fact checking such claim was sent to Digiteye India to fact check whether it was true. A similar claim has been making rounds on social media for over a year as seen on Twitter here and here.

Pineapple cores contain high levels of Bromelain – an effective anti-inflammatory, muscle relaxant, and digestive aid and it also includes chemicals that interfere with the growth of tumor cells, making pineapple a good food to prevent cancer. pic.twitter.com/oJxcEE321Z

— Compounding Pharmacy (@abccompounding) February 15, 2023

FACT CHECK

Our team has taken it up and found that the claim was not new and has been making rounds for since 2021. Essentially, the claim was after a research report published in PubMed website.

The study conducted by Barbara Romano et al affiliated to the Department of Pharmacy, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy published the above report about their lab tests on chemprevention quality of certain enzymes found in pineapple stem. “A combination of bromelain and N-acetylcysteine produced increased inhibition of proliferation and survival of gastrointestinal (GI) cancer cells,” says the study.

However, the finding is not conclusive and requires more studies. To this effect, Professor Dr Aru Wisaksono Sudoyo, chairman of the Indonesian Cancer Foundation, told AFP on Aug. 6, 2021 that such a claim cannot be conclusive at this stage. He stated that Bromelain is being studied for its qualities of suppressing the growth of cancer cells but there is no effective concluding evidence so far. “Something that is seen to work in a laboratory may not necessarily be effective in real life,” the expert cautioned.

Dr Raymond Chang, a New York City-based cancer specialist and author of book “Beyond the Magic Bullet: The Anti-Cancer Cocktail” has also reiterated the fact that the research on pineapple’s effects on cancer cells are based on test tube studies still.

“We must distinguish laboratory experiments and clinical reality,” Chang said. “Many many natural items ‘kill cancer cells’ in an artificial laboratory environment, but they don’t work when practically applied to a human person.”

Since the results from clinical trials are mixed still, lab studies remain preliminary and until human trials are undertaken at a wider level, it cannot be concluded for certain that pineapple with hot water can cancer cure.

Claim: Pineapple with hot water cures cancer.
Conclusion: Research findings are still at lab stage and pending human trials, it cannot be concluded with certainty.
Rating: Misleading —