Bitter Melon for cancer?

This is a story from a friend’s Mum who grew up in Guyana:
When my brother was undergoing treatment for nonHodgkins Lymphona a mutual friend from Guyana suggested that he should try eating a common vegetabe eaten in Guyana called bitter melon, the fruit or the leaves. She said she used to use it in Guyana, frying it up with onions to mask the bitter taste. She recounted to me a story of a Guyanese woman who was diagnosed with cancer in New York some years ago and was told she had a year or 6 months to live and was offered chemotherapy. She decided she did not want chemo and went back to Guyana and ate lots of bitter melon, the fruit and the leaves (knowing I presume from generations of local folklore that this might shrink her tumour). Apparently some years later she went back to New York and saw her consultant who discovered that her tumour had indeed shrunk. Our Guyanese friend who told me this story lives in Madeira. She also told me that it is also called Carailla and she used to be able to buy it in tea bag form from Asda but recently could not find it. In Guyana the dried leaves are used as a form of detox. She also said that carailla was mentioned for its useful properties in the Lancet about 4/5 years ago. Last year a friend of ours was diagnosed with cancer of the bowel and I tried fidetox. She also said that carailla was mentioned for its useful properties in the Lancet about 4/5 years nding the tea bags also unsuccessfully. But did have a conversation with a salesperson in a Victoria health food store who told me that carailla was a well known preparation in tablet form to aid diabetes.

Family: Cucurbitaceae, Genus: Momordica, Species: charantia-

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