Research Progress of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Treating Breast Cancer / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

Breast cancer is one of the common diseases among women. It is a malignant tumor with a variety of complex mechanisms. Its pathogenesis has not been clearly studied. Physical, chemical and surgical treatments often cause vomiting, nausea, dizziness and headache for women. As compared with traditional treatment, Chinese medicine is characterized by multiple targets, small side effect and good effect in treating breast cancer. In this paper, 85 kinds of Chinese herbal medicines that can treat breast cancer were included. Among them, 69 kinds of Chinese herbal medicines have been included in the 2015 edition of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, and 16 kinds of Chinese herbal medicines have not been included. The main medicinal ingredients in these Chinese herbal medicines for treatment of breast cancer were alkaloids, glycosides, phenols, terpenes, carbohydrates, volatile oils, coumarins and so on. In addition, these herbal medicines were classified according to their effects in breast cancer. Then, combined with the recent studies at home and abroad, this paper summarized the effect of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) on breast cancer, including the reversal of multi-drug resistance, the inhibition of metastasis and proliferation, the induction of tumor cell apoptosis, and the arrest of the cell cycle for breast cancer. This paper also explained three pathways for treating breast cancer by TCM, including intervening the tumor cell related apoptosis gene to inhibit breast cancer, inhibiting the expression of P-glycoprotein in the cell membrane to reverse the multi-drug resistance of breast cancer cells, and regulating the related epithelial mesenchymal transition signal pathway to prevent breast cancer cells metastasis and proliferation. In the end, it was concluded that Chinese medicine can reduce the drug resistance and metastasis of breast cancer cells, block the cell cycle of breast cancer cells, and also intervene the expression of apoptotic factors to promote the death of breast cancer cells. The inhibition of breast cancer by Chinese medicine was the result of the common effect of various ingredients. Therefore, Chinese medicine treatment for breast cancer has the unparalleled advantages as compared with chemical and surgical treatment. Chinese medicine is one of our important means to overcome breast cancer.