Triptolide: A new star for treating human malignancies.

In recent years, cancer has become the most common human disease worldwide, and great attentions have been paid to clarifying the carcinogenesis and identifying new effective antitumor therapy. Although great progress has been made in this research field, human malignant diseases could still not be radically cured. Thunder god vine is a herbal medicine, which has proved to exert efficient antitumor activity in various human cancers such as lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, and colon cancer. In vivo and in vitro experiments showed that thunder god vine extract triptolide could inhibit tumor cell proliferation, cell migration, and cell invasion. Here, we overviewed the functional role of triptolide in human malignancies and its promising therapeutic potential in treating such deadly diseases.