Does dandelion root help with cancer? What the research does and doesn't show

The evidence doesn't support dandelion root, in any form, as a treatment or cure for cancer. Searches for a "dandelion root cancer cure" turn up lab studies where dandelion root extract was applied to isolated cancer cells or given to mice with implanted tumors — never a controlled trial in a person with cancer, and never a substitute for one.

What the evidence doesn't support

It doesn't support drinking dandelion tea or taking a dandelion root supplement to treat, shrink, cure or prevent any type of cancer — colon, prostate, lung, pancreatic, skin or blood cancers included. A single human case, described below, exists in the published record; one case is not proof that anything worked, and it shouldn't be read as one.

What the trials found

A 2016 lab study applied an aqueous dandelion root extract to human colon cancer cells growing in a dish. Within 48 hours, more than 95% of the cancer cells exposed to the extract had died, regardless of a gene marker (p53 status) that often affects how cancer cells respond to treatment. The same researchers then gave the extract by mouth to mice implanted with human colon tumors: the tumors in the treated mice grew more than 90% less than the tumors in untreated mice. This was a cell-culture experiment followed by a mouse tumor model — not a trial in a person with colon cancer, and the paper didn't report a dose that would translate to a human serving.

A 2006 review of dandelion's pharmacology noted that "anti-carcinogenic" activity has been studied for the plant, but described that work as sitting mainly in lab and animal research, with human-level testing of these effects still unfinished.

No clinical trial has tested dandelion in people with cancer, and no controlled human study of any kind exists.

Questions people ask

Does dandelion root extract affect colon cancer cells?

In a dish, yes — a 2016 study found it killed more than 95% of human colon cancer cells within 48 hours and slowed tumor growth in mice given the extract by mouth. That's cell-culture and animal research, not a result shown in a person with colon cancer.

Can dandelion root extract cure cancer?

No. Nothing in the published research, including the colon cancer cell and mouse study above, is a cure claim or a human trial of dandelion against cancer.

Is dandelion root good for prostate, lung or pancreatic cancer?

No human trial has tested dandelion root against any of these cancer types. Any lab research on other cancer types (outside the colon cancer study above) hasn't been part of a controlled trial in people either.

Is dandelion root safe for dogs with cancer?

This page covers research in people; we didn't find a controlled veterinary trial of dandelion root in dogs with cancer either. A vet is the right person to ask about supplements alongside a cancer diagnosis in a pet.

When to talk to a doctor

A current or past cancer diagnosis, or any ongoing chemotherapy or radiation treatment, is a reason to talk to an oncologist before adding any supplement, including dandelion root — some herbs can interact with cancer treatments. Dandelion root is not a treatment for cancer, and nothing in the research above supports using it as a substitute for a doctor's care. For what dandelion root's other studied effects do and don't show, see dandelion root benefits: what the research does and doesn't show, and for who should avoid it, see who should not take dandelion root.