Yue Grace Gar-Lee, Lee Julia Kin-Ming, Chan Ben Chung-Lap, Kwok Hin-Fai, Hoi Sandy Wan-Heng, Sze Daniel Man-Yuen, Fung Kwok-Pui, Leung Ping-Chung, Lau Clara Bik-San
Institute of Chinese Medicine, E205, Science Centre East Block, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong.
State Key Laboratory of Research On Bioactivities and Clinical Applications of Medicinal Plants, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong.
Chin Med. 2018 Dec 22;13:64. doi: 10.1186/s13020-018-0222-9. eCollection 2018.
The incidence and mortality of cancer metastasis is high worldwide. Despite of the chemotherapeutic agents, many cancer patients still take traditional Chinese herbal prescriptions as adjuvant treatments. However, most of these herbal formulae/products lack of evidence-based efficacy. Based on our previous investigations on anti-tumor, anti-angiogenic, anti-metastatic, bone protective and immunomodulating activities of various Chinese herbal medicines, four constituent herbs, namely , , , and were eventually selected to form an innovative herbal formula.
The anti-tumor efficacies of the formula were evaluated in metastatic breast cancer mice model. The bone protective and immunomodulatory effects were also assessed after formula treatment.
Our results showed that the breast tumor weight as well as lung and liver metastasis in mice could be reduced after herbal formula treatment for 4 weeks. The breast tumor-induced osteolysis in mice was restored by herbal formula treatment, in which the bone volume in treated mice tibia was comparable to that in the non-tumor bearing normal mice. The IL-12 level was augmented and the survival of mice with metastatic breast tumors was prolonged after treatment. Furthermore, combination of herbal formula with chemotherapeutic agent doxorubicin resulted in better anti-tumor efficacy and increased life span in tumor-bearing mice, when compared with doxorubicin alone treatment.
In summary, our innovative Chinese herbal formula was demonstrated to possess anti-tumor, anti-metastatic and bone-protective activities in metastatic breast tumor-bearing mice. The preclinical data generated in this study would lead to the development of evidence-based supplement as adjuvant therapy for metastatic breast cancer.
癌症转移的发病率和死亡率在全球范围内都很高。尽管有化疗药物，但许多癌症患者仍将中药方剂作为辅助治疗。然而，这些中药配方/产品大多缺乏循证疗效。基于我们之前对各种中药的抗肿瘤、抗血管生成、抗转移、骨保护和免疫调节活性的研究，最终选择了四种组成草药，即[草药名称1]、[草药名称2]、[草药名称3]和[草药名称4]，组成一种创新的中药配方。
在转移性乳腺癌小鼠模型中评估该配方的抗肿瘤疗效。在配方治疗后还评估了骨保护和免疫调节作用。
我们的结果表明，中药配方治疗4周后，小鼠的乳腺肿瘤重量以及肺和肝转移可以减少。中药配方治疗可恢复小鼠乳腺肿瘤诱导的骨溶解，治疗组小鼠胫骨的骨体积与未患肿瘤的正常小鼠相当。治疗后，白细胞介素-12水平升高，转移性乳腺癌小鼠的生存期延长。此外，与单独使用阿霉素治疗相比，中药配方与化疗药物阿霉素联合使用可产生更好的抗肿瘤疗效，并延长荷瘤小鼠的寿命。
总之，我们的创新中药配方在转移性乳腺癌荷瘤小鼠中具有抗肿瘤、抗转移和骨保护活性。本研究产生的临床前数据将有助于开发基于证据的补充剂，作为转移性乳腺癌的辅助治疗。
