Antiproliferative activity herb extracts and breast cancer

Antiproliferative activity of 71 herb extracts was tested on breast cancer cells

2003 MAR 24 -- Antiproliferative activity of 71 herb extracts was tested on breast cancer cells. According to a study from the United States, "Chinese medicinal herbs are traditionally used to prevent and treat a variety of diseases, including cancer. These herbal preparations are purported to have many biological effects including direct antiproliferative effects on cancer cells, antimutagenic activity, and stimulatory or suppressive effects on immune responses. The present study investigates the effects of aqueous extracts from 71 Chinese medicinal herbs on the growth of 5 breast cancer cell lines (SK-BR-3, MCF7, MDA-MB-231, BT-474 and MCNeuA). "A total of 21% (15/71) of the extracts demonstrated greater than 50% growth inhibition on at least 4 of the 5 cell lines. Dose response curves were obtained for several of the most potent crude extracts and demonstrated IC50 values ranging from <10 microgr/ml to >1 mg/ml. Six of seven herbs tested induced high molecular weight DNA fragmentation, an early marker of apoptosis, while one of these also induced low molecular weight DNA fragmentation. Flow cytometric analysis of breast cancer cells exposed to one of these herbs (Rheum palmatum) suggested that it arrests cells in the G2/M phase of the cell cycle," stated M.J. Campbell and coauthors at University of California San Francisco's Mt. Zion Medical Center. Campbell and coauthors concluded: "These results indicate that many of the herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of cancer have significant growth inhibitory effects on breast cancer cells in vitro." Campbell and colleagues published the results of their study in Anticancer Research (Antiproliferative activity of Chinese medicinal herbs on breast cancer cells in vitro. Anticancer Res, 2002;22(6C):3843-3852). The corresponding author for this report is M.J. Campbell, University of of California San Francisco, Mt Zion Med Center, Department Surgery, Rm C342, 1600 Divisadero, San Francisco, CA 94115, USA.
Copyright 2003, Clinical Oncology Week via NewsRx.com. Clinical Oncology Week, March 24, 2003, page 7