BREAST cancer has been shown to be the leading cause of death among women between 40 and 55 years of age, and the second overall cause of death among women.
Fortunately, the mortality rate from breast cancer has reportedly decreased in recent years due to an increased emphasis on early detection and more effective treatments.
Despite early detection, conventional and chemotherapeutic methods of treatment, most women with breast cancer are still dying.
However, the search for natural anti-cancer agents has yielded good results.
Researchers have found that regular intake of local spices (Scent leaf) and vegetables (Bitter leaf), coffee, green tea and increased physical activity could reduce the risk of developing breast cancer as well as inhibit the growth of tumours.
Indeed, overwhelming scientific data, from epidemiological studies, indicate that diets rich in fruit and vegetables are associated with a lower risk of several degenerative diseases, such as cancers. This association is often attributed to different antioxidant components, such as vitamin C, vitamin E, carotenoids, lycopenes, polyphenols and other phytochemicals.
Phenolic compounds originating from edible and non- edible plant parts possess antioxidant activity. They display the capability to inhibit or delay the oxidation of lipids, proteins, and Deoxy ribo-Nucleic Acid (DNA)/genetic material by affecting the initiation or propagation of oxidizing chain reactions.
Natural phenolic antioxidants have been shown to scavenge reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS), thereby preventing the onset of oxidative diseases in the body.
Also, a positive correlation between the consumption of phenolic-rich foods and several chronic diseases has been shown to exist from epidemiological studies. The occurrence of various kinds of anti-oxidative phenolic compounds, including flavonoids and cinnamic acid derivatives in plant foods have been reviewed by several authors.
Polyphenols in vegetables, fruits, and teas have been shown to prevent degenerative diseases including cancers through antioxidative action and/or the modulation of several protein functions. It is estimated that over two- thirds of cancer related death could be prevented through lifestyle modification, particularly through dietary habits.
Evaluation cellular antioxidant activities and the cytotoxic properties of some leafy vegetables commonly consumed in Nigeria; namely, Vernonia amygdalina (Bitter leaf), Manihot utilissima (Cassava), Corchorus olitorius (jute in English, ewedu in Yoruba) and Occimum gratissimum (Scent leaf) published recently in African Journal of Food Science concluded: “The exhibited antioxidant activity and cytotoxic properties could be partly due to the rich content of flavonoids and cynamoyl derivatives in addition to other phytochemical constituents of the vegetal materials. This by implication is that regular consumption of green leafy vegetables could be a promising nutraceuticals in cancer chemoprevention and related diseases.”
Researchers have found that scent leaf (Ocimum gratissimum) inhibited breast tumour growth and angiogenesis. The study published in International Journal of Cancer concluded: “…This is the first detailed report showing that Ocimum gratissimum leaf extract may be of value as a breast cancer preventive and therapeutic agent and might be considered as additional additive in the arsenal of components aimed at combating breast cancer progression and metastasis.
“Our data suggest that the inhibitory properties are due to a novel un-described component, or combination of components. These data stress the importance of validating the use of traditional medicinal herbs in combination with the modern medicine in tumor prevention and therapy. More experiments are in progress to isolate the active ingredient(s) and to understand the molecular targets and pathways affected by this herb.”
A study published in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health has validated bitter leaf (Vernonia amygdalina) as a good candidate for cancer therapy.
The study is titled: “Preclinical Assessment of Vernonia amygdalina Leaf Extracts as DNA Damaging Anti-cancer Agent in the Management of Breast Cancer.”
The researchers include Clement Yedjou and Paul Tchounwou from the Cellomics and Toxicogenomics Research Laboratory, NIH-RCMI Centre for Environmental Health, Jackson, MS, USA and Ernest Izevbigie from Cellular Signalling, Phytoceuticals, Cancer Prevention and Therapies, College of Science, Engineering and Technology, Jackson State University, Jackson, Mississippi, USA.
The researchers assessed the therapeutic efficacy of Vernonia amygdalina (VA) leaf extracts as anti-cancer agent against human breast cancer in vitro. In this experiment, human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7) cells were treated with different doses of VA leaf extracts for 48 hours. Data obtained showed that VA significantly reduced the viability of MCF-7 cells in a dose-dependent manner upon 48 hours of exposure.
Data generated from the comet assay also indicated a slight dose-dependent increase in DNA damage in MCF-7 cells associated with VA treatment.
The researchers wrote: “We observed a slight increase in comet tail-length, tail arm and tail moment, as well as in percentages of DNA cleavage at all doses tested, showing an evidence that VA-induced minimal genotoxic damage in MCF-7 cells. Taken together, our findings suggest that VA treatment moderately reduces cellular viability and induces minimal DNA damage in MCF-7 cells. These findings provide evidence that VA extracts represent a DNA-damaging anti-cancer agent against breast cancer and its mechanisms of action functions, at least in part, through minimal DNA damage and moderate toxicity in tumours cells.”
They concluded: “These in vitro findings provide the pharmacological support that VA represents a potential DNA-damaging anticancer agent against breast cancer and its mechanisms of action functions, at least in part through, minimal DNA damage and moderate toxicity in tumours cells. Because VA causes minimal DNA damage, it is therefore a good candidate for cancer therapy.”
Another study on bitter leaf published in American Journal of Pharmacology and Toxicology concluded: “By effecting ?-oxidation of fatty acids and lipids in cell membranes and cell mitochondrial energy (ATP) generation systems, the V. amygdalina extract uncouples the mitochondrial energy (ATP generation) systems of the cancer cells and cell membranes resulting in the cancer cells being burnt out (consumed) by the extract (when V. amygdalina extract is cytotoxic to the cancer cells) or its functioning being inhibited (when V. amygdalina extract is only inhibitory to the cancer cells.”
The study is titled: “Mechanisms of Anti-Cancer Effects of Vernonia amygdalina Leaf Extract.” It was conducted by Utoh-Nedosa Uchechukwu Anastasia from the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Anambra State.
United States researchers found that an oral green tea extract- Polyphenon E — may inhibit tumor cell growth, migration and invasion.
Dr. Katherine D. Crew of Columbia University Medical Centre in New York and colleagues said that they made the discovery during a secondary analysis of an earlier randomised, placebo-controlled study of Polyphenon E in a group of 40 women with hormone receptor-negative breast cancer.
In the primary analysis, 40 women were randomly assigned to 400 milligrams, 600 mg or 800 mg of Polyphenon E or to placebo twice daily for six months. During the study, the researchers collected blood and urine samples from participants at baseline and at two, four and six months.
Women assigned to the extract had a significant reduction in hepatocyte growth factor levels- important to breast cancer development- at two months compared with women assigned the placebo.
However, at the four-month and six-month follow-ups, the difference was no longer statistically significant, the study said.
Also, recently published research shows that coffee drinkers enjoy not only the taste of their coffee but also a reduced risk of cancer. More detailed research published May 10 in BioMed Central’s open access journal Breast Cancer Research shows that drinking coffee specifically reduces the risk of antiestrogen-resistant estrogen-receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer.
Researchers from Sweden compared lifestyle factors and coffee consumption between women with breast cancer and age-matched women without. They found that coffee drinkers had a lower incidence of breast cancer than women who rarely drank coffee.
However, they also found that several lifestyle factors affected breast cancer rates, such as age at menopause, exercise, weight, education, and a family history of breast cancer. Once they had adjusted their data to account for these other factors they found that the protective effect of coffee on breast cancer was only measurable for ER-negative breast cancer.
Meanwhile, researchers in a study published in the journal Cancer found that women who exercised about two hours a day, five days a week, were about 30 per cent less likely to develop breast cancer than less active women. The intensity of the exercise did not seem to matter; all it took was moderate physical activity, which could include gardening, walking or doing household chores, for the women to benefit.
The study by Lauren McCullough, a doctoral candidate in epidemiology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, United States, and her colleagues included 1,504 women with breast cancer and 1,555 similar women without the disease, aged 20 to 98 years old, enrolled in the Long Island Breast Cancer Study Project. As part of the project, the women answered questions about their physical activity over their lifetimes -any recreational exercise they did for at least an hour per week for three months or more.
The researchers then calculated a lifetime composite score for physical activity that they used to compare across the participants.
Overall, women who did any exercise had a six per cent lower risk of breast cancer than those who did not, but certain subgroups of women enjoyed even larger benefits. The effect was strongest among women who had children and exercised about 10 to 19 hours each week- either during their reproductive years or after menopause, for them, exercise was associated with a 30 per cent lower risk of breast cancer during the study period, compared with women who exercised less, or not at all
Source: TheGuardian
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