Abstract
Boron oxide (B2O3) is derived from dehydration of boric acid and is a colorless, semitransparent, crystalline compound that is moderately soluble in water. On the other hand, boron oxide is chemically hygroscopic. This gives the molecule the ability to soak up water and adhere to tissues. Boron oxide can be used locally after tumor debulking in inoperable tumors and especially when the tumor-free margin distance cannot be provided. For all these reasons we aimed to evaluate the in vitro test results of B2O3 in terms of cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, apoptosis, and necrotic effects on L929 fibroblast cells and DLD-1 colorectal adenocarcinoma cells. Our studies demonstrated that boron oxide compounds appear to be highly cytotoxic for both cell lines according to WST cell viability assay (44.22% and 18.36% on DLD-1 and L929, respectively). Although no genotoxic effects were observed, boron oxide compounds showed antiproliferative effects for both cell lines. The prepared boron oxide compounds may hold the potential to be applied locally to the remaining tissue after surgery and further research and evaluation will be needed to determine its effectiveness.
Highlights
It is evident that cancer is a fatal public health problem worldwide, and colorectal cancers among all cancers are observed with a high frequency in both sexes
On the other hand, when we look at the structure of boron oxide, it has the formula of diboron trioxide (B2O3), with alternative names such as boric anhydride, boron trioxide, boric oxide, and boric acid anhydride
Since we saw that boron is not used as an anticancer agent except for some certain types of cancers at the present time, in order to expand the range of use of boron-centered chemotherapeutic agents in medical cancer treatments in the literature, we evaluated the effects of B2O3 molecules as an in vitro chemotherapeutic agent in terms of toxicity, genotoxicity, and apoptotic and necrotic effects on colorectal tumor cells
Summary
It is evident that cancer is a fatal public health problem worldwide, and colorectal cancers among all cancers are observed with a high frequency in both sexes. Prognosis is still limited in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, despite the emergence of targeted therapy (e.g., cetuximab and bevacizumab) and improvement of other treatment modalities (Nelson and Thorson, 2009). It appears that the development of new chemoprophylactic agents is needed for the prevention of colorectal cancer in early stages. Colorectal cancer treatments are still obstructed by delayed diagnosis, metastatic spread through portal blood or lymphatic invasions, iatrogenic recurrence after surgical removal, and failure of specificity in chemo- and radiotherapy (Midgley and Kerr, 1999; Sugarbaker, 1999). Systemic chemotherapy is possibly the only choice for adjuvant
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