Abstract
Plant-derived BEC with its main component solamargine possesses anticancer activities via its effect on a variety of biological pathways in a wide range of human cancer cells. High cure rates with BEC therapy have been obtained in animals with deadly cancers, and, in humans with terminal cancers promising results have been reported. At a clinical level, optimal concentrations of BEC have been established in a topical cream formulation Curaderm, for effective removal of skin cancers, but optimal concentrations of BEC have not been reported for other cancers. The objective of this study was to determine whether combination therapy of Cisplatin with BEC would result in synergism using cure rates as end points. BEC on its own cures Sarcoma 180 in mice, whereas, Cisplatin on its own has no effect on Sarcoma 180 activity. A combination of BEC and Cisplatin shows synergism, resulting in higher cure rates than BEC and Cisplatin at comparable individual concentrations.
Highlights
Cytotoxic chemotherapy remains one of the premier treatment options to combat cancer
Mice inoculated with 5 × 105 Sarcoma 180 cells alone, or Sarcoma 180 cells and 0.5h later with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) or Saline generally died in 2 - 3 weeks
Administration of low dose (LD) Cisplatin into Sarcoma 180 containing mice resulted in slightly increased survival time but was statistically not significant (p = 0.1718) and at day 25 all the mice had died
Summary
Cytotoxic chemotherapy remains one of the premier treatment options to combat cancer. The efficacy of chemotherapy is limited by the fact that not all tumors respond optimally. Single modality chemotherapy with existing drugs is rarely curative. Drug-resistant tumor cells and cancer stem cells, that represent a small subpopulation of dormant cancer cells within numerous tumors, escape chemotherapy. For this reason, combination chemotherapy has become the standard treatment for advanced cancers.
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