1.
Efficacy and Safety of Chinese Herbal Medicine on Treatment of Breast Cancer: A Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
Ho, VW, Tan, HY, Guo, W, Li, S, Wang, N, Meng, W, So, TH, Yu, EC, Feng, Y
The American journal of Chinese medicine. 2021;(7):1557-1575
Abstract
Breast cancer is currently the most common cancer in women, and it accounts for 11.6% of all cancer diagnoses in 2018. Breast cancer patients frequently resort to alternative medicine in addition to conventional Western therapy. This study is to evaluate clinical effectiveness of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) on breast cancer by conducting meta-analyses on 81 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with a total of 7215 subjects from eight databases. All RCTs compared patients using Western therapy alone and those using additional CHM therapy to evaluate the difference of primary (tumor response, mean time to progression (mTTP), overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS)) and secondary outcome measures (tumor markers). Results showed that under the RECIST1.1 criteria, 52% patients with additional CHM therapy (67%, under WHO criteria) achieved either a complete response (CR) or a partial response (PR), compared to 38% patients with Western therapy alone (53%, under the WHO criteria). The risk ratio was 1.31 ([Formula: see text] < 0.00001, 95% CI = 1.15-1.50) for patients with CHM plus Western therapy and 1.25 ([Formula: see text] < 0.00001, 95% CI = 1.18-1.98) for those with Western therapy. Moreover, patients with complementary CHM therapy were associated with an mTTP of 2.79 months longer ([Formula: see text] < 0.00001) and an OS of 1.90 months longer ([Formula: see text] < 0.00001); they also had an increase in 3-year PFS ([Formula: see text]= 0.002), 2- ([Formula: see text]= 0.0002) and 5-year ([Formula: see text]= 0.006) OS rates. Therefore, complementary CHM therapy might demonstrate clinical benefits for breast cancer patients in terms of tumor response and survival. Clinical studies with further stratification of tumor stages and intervention types are highly warranted.
2.
Association between whole grain intake and breast cancer risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.
Xiao, Y, Ke, Y, Wu, S, Huang, S, Li, S, Lv, Z, Yeoh, EK, Lao, X, Wong, S, Kim, JH, et al
Nutrition journal. 2018;(1):87
Abstract
BACKGROUND Epidemiological studies have found that high whole grain intake may be associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer. However, the evidence has not been consistent. We conducted a meta-analysis to quantitatively assess the association between whole grain intake and breast cancer risk. METHODS Relevant observational studies were identified by searching PubMed, Embase, Cochrane library databases, and Google Scholar through April 2017. Summary relative risk (RR) estimates were calculated using random-effects meta-analysis. RESULTS A total of 11 studies, including 4 cohort and 7 case-control studies and involving 131,151 participants and 11,589 breast cancer cases, were included in the current meta-analysis. The pooled RR of breast cancer for those with high versus low whole grain intake was 0.84 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.74 to 0.96, p = 0.009; I2 = 63.8%, p for heterogeneity = 0.002). Subgroup analysis by study design found a significant inverse association in the case-control studies (RR: 0.69; 95% CI: 0.56 to 0.87, p = 0.001; I2 = 58.2%, p for heterogeneity = 0.026), but not in the cohort studies (RR, 0.96; 95% CI: 0.82 to 1.14, p = 0.69; I2 = 66.7%, p for heterogeneity = 0.029). In addition, stratified analysis suggested that sample size could be a potential source of heterogeneity. CONCLUSIONS Results of the current meta-analysis suggest that high intake of whole grains might be inversely associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer, and the inverse association was only observed in case-control but not cohort studies. More large-scale cohort studies are needed to confirm the inverse association observed.
3.
Inhibition of sorcin reverses multidrug resistance of K562/A02 cells and MCF-7/A02 cells via regulating apoptosis-related proteins.
Hu, Y, Cheng, X, Li, S, Zhou, Y, Wang, J, Cheng, T, Yang, M, Xiong, D
Cancer chemotherapy and pharmacology. 2013;(4):789-98
Abstract
PURPOSE Sorcin, a 22-kDa calcium-binding protein, renders cancer cells resistant to chemotherapeutic agents, thus playing an important role in multidrug resistance (MDR). But the mechanisms mediated by sorcin still remain quite elusive. This study aim to explore whether sorcin silencing could restore chemosensitivity in MDR cancer cells and seek to identify the functional mechanisms mediated by sorcin. METHODS To investigate the mechanisms of sorcin-silencing-induced chemosensitivity, transient expression of sorcin-siRNAs was performed in doxorubicin-induced MDR cell lines, K562/A02 and MCF-7/A02. Sensitivity to five chemotherapeutic agents was evaluated by analysis of cell survival and cell apoptosis. RESULTS In this report, we show that down-regulation of sorcin did not alter expression or function of P-gp, but actually induced cell apoptosis and chemosensitivity in K562/A02 and MCF-7/A02. We also observe that silencing of sorcin-enhanced chemotherapeutic agent effects partly through regulating apoptosis-related protein, including Bcl-2, Bax, c-jun and c-fos. CONCLUSION This offers the rationale for the development of therapeutic strategies down-regulating sorcin expression for the treatment of cancer, especially for the reversal of MDR.