What are the current and novel herbal drugs for chemo-prevention reported and proofed as anticancer with scientific evidence and marketing authorization?
You can search for anticancer Drugs in DRUGBANK Database (combines detailed drug (i.e. chemical, pharmacological and pharmaceutical) data with comprehensive drug target (i.e. sequence, structure, and pathway) information.)
For drug like Novel compounds you can try searching chemical databases like ZINC database, ChemSpider, PubChem etc.
Thank u all. Mohammed Sir, thank u for paper. I already read this paper many times and related to anticancer regarding papers. This is a really very good paper but I just want to know about those herbal drugs that are clinically used on human beings to treat cancer. There are many plants that used as a anticancer because they contains wide range of ingredients that inhibit ROS and cause apoptosis but all these just clinically used on rodents in vivo.
As I see from your description and clarification, you are clearly asking about natural agents with preventive anticancer activity for which there is some level of positive human clinical data, not ones with only preclinical (in vitro or in vivo) data. Specializing as I do in advanced cancer therapeutics, I have a sub-specialization in integrative oncology, so let me try to provide you with the appropriate information, from an internal review I was recently commissioned to undertake.
Perhaps surprisingly given the often wild and naive claims made in the medical media, there are only a handful of natural agents that have high-level evidence of efficacy for either (chemo)-preventive benefit or therapeutic anticancer activity. The following are all supported by high-level evidence for preventive and/or therapeutic activity, either as:
Level I: Evidence from a systematic review or meta-analysis of all relevant RCTs or evidence-based clinical practice guidelines based on systematic reviews of RCTs.
OR
Level II: Either Evidence obtained from multiple well-designed controlled trials without Randomization, OR Evidence from well-designed cohort or case-control analytic studies, preferably from more than one center or research group.
All other evidence, as from non-experimental descriptive studies, such as comparative studies, correlation studies, and case-control studies, constitute low level (Levels III and below) evidence and will not qualify the sufficiency criteria for high-level evidence presented above. These are stringent requirements that the rigorous of evidence-based medicine requires before we can accept any natural agent as having sufficiently powered and methodologically adequate evidence of benefit for either the prevention or the treatment of cancer in the human clinical context.
Natural Agents with High-Level Evidence of Preventive and/or Therapeutic Benefit:
[with my associated commentary and cautions]
MELATONIN
- Breast cancer [multiple RCTs and meta-analyses (non-cross-confirmed): both preventive and therapeutic use]
- Lung cancer [RCT data: therapeutic use]
- GI cancer [RCT data: therapeutic use]
COMMENTARY:
- also found of benefit with high-level supporting evidence as a chemoprotectant and as a radioprotectant.
EGCG (GREEN TEA)
- Breast [meta-analysis of 10 studies: preventive use]
- Colorectal cancer (CRC) [meta-analysis of 8 studies: preventive use]
- Liver cancer [meta-analysis of 13 studies: preventive use]
- Lung [meta-analysis of 12 studies: preventive use]
- Ovarian cancer [systematic reviews: preventive use]
- Prostate [meta-analysis of 7 studies: preventive use]
COMMENTARY:
- In vitro evidence suggests that green tea may bind to and reduce the effectiveness of bortezomib (Velcade), a biologic agent used in multiple myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).
- Except for CLL (leukemia), high-level evidence of EGCG benefit is restricted to prevention of disease / lowering risk of development, not as active therapy.
CURCUMIN
- Colorectal cancer (CRC) [multiple RCTs: preventive use]
- Pancreatic cancer
- [Phase II RCT: therapeutic use;
- Phase I/II trial of curcumin concurrent with gemcitabine (Gemzar)]
COMMENTARY:
- as standardized curcuminoids
- the single most studied natural agent (thousands of studies)
- and because of its demonstrated activity across virtually all major pathogenic molecular pathways (including cyclin D1 and cyclin E, c-myc, p21, p27, p53, HER-2, EGFR, AP-1, Bcl-2, Bcl-xL, Bax, cIAP1, xIAP, cFLIP, survivin, MMP-2/9 and adhesion molecules, VEGF, VEGFR1, IGF-1R, CXCR-4, NF-kB, TNF, IL-6, IL-1, STAT3/5, JNK, COX-2, 5-LOX, iNOS, Wnt/β-catenin, caspase activation pathways (caspase-8, 3, 9), death receptor pathways (DR4, DR5), mitochondrial pathways, and protein kinase pathway (JNK, PI3K/Akt, ERK, AMPK), including both HDAC and DNMT inhibitory activity; among many others), it stands as arguably the most promising natural anticancer and chemopreventive agent we currently have.
OMEGA-3 FATTY ACIDS (OFA)
- Renal cancer [Prospective cohort: preventive use]
- Breast cancer [Prospective cohort: preventive use]
- Lung cancer (NSCLC) [RCT; therapeutic when concurrent with chemotherapy]
CORIOLUS VERSICOLOR (Mushroom)
- Gastric cancer [RCT: therapeutic use. Note: as Polysaccharide-K (PSK)]
- Colorectal cancer (CRC) [RCT: therapeutic use. Note: as Polysaccharide-K (PSK)]
- NSCLC [RCT: therapeutic use. Note: as polysaccharide-peptide (PSP)]
COMMENTARY:
- Coriolus versicolor is currently approved in Japan as an adjuvant (supplementary) treatment for digestive system, lung and nasopharyngeal cancers.
TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE (TCM)
Colorectal cancer CRC [cohort: therapeutic when concurrent with chemotherapy]
COMMENTARY:
- evidence remains weak, and there is no standardization of TCM compounds, compromising replicability]
POMEGRANATE
Prostate cancer [Phase II: therapeutic use]
COMMENTARY:
- the evidence remains weak and equivocal, and the only positive result in the Phase II study was by using PSA doubling as surrogate marker for positive outcome, not demonstrating direct positive outcome endpoints]
SUMMARY:
As can be seen from above, of all the agents with high-level evidence, the agents with the strongest supporting high-level evidence are melatonin, EGCG, and curcumin, and for both cancer prevention and cancer therapeutic use. We are awaiting the results of several in-progress clinical trials on these and other agents, and when and if that data matures sufficiently and meets the requirement of high-level human clinical evidence, others may be added.
Constantine Kaniklidis
Director of Medical Research, No Surrender Breast Cancer Foundation (NSBCF)
I must say that Ferdinando's paper on natural MMP inhibitors represents a seminal work in the increasingly critically important MMP-cancer arena, and I consider it required reading in the field (and I also assign in my instruction his recent highly insightful commentary in BMC on "What does matrix metalloproteinase-1 expression in patients with breast cancer really tell us?"
It is interesting to note that the three natural agents in my review with the most compelling high-level human clinical evidence in support of clinically relevant anticancer activity - curcuminoids, melatonin and EGCG - all exhibit strong and well-documented MMP inhibitory activity.
Nando, I think we are in agreement that it is highly plausible that some of the anticancer benefit in humans derivable from these natural agents may be in part consequent to MMP inhibition, especially from curcumin as a broad spectrum MMP inhibitor, although both EGCG and melatonin also appear to derive some anticancer activity (such as antiangiogenesis) from MMP inhibitory activity.
With great pride and honor, we would like to invite you to participate in “14th World Cancer Convention” which is going to be held during November 21-23, 2016 at Dubai, UAE.
For details please visit here: http://cancer.global-summit.com/middleeast/