Abstract
Breast cancer has been recognized as the leading cause of death in women worldwide. Research has shown the importance of complementary and alternative therapies in cancer. In this study, we investigated the antitumoural therapeutic effects of Malaysian Tualang honey (TH) and Australian/New Zealand Manuka honey (MH) against breast cancer in rats. Thirty syngeneic virgin female Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were induced by the carcinogen 1-methyl-1-nitrosourea (MNU) 80 mg/kg. The treatment started when first palpable tumour reached 10–12 mm in size by dividing rats into following groups: Group 0 (negative control); Group 1 (positive control); and Groups 2 and 3 which received 1.0 g/kg body weight/day of TH and MH, respectively, for 120 days. The data demonstrate that cancer masses in TH and MH treated groups showed a lower median tumour size, weight, and multiplicity compared with the nontreated positive control (p < 0.05). Treatment also showed a dramatic slower growth rate (up to 70.82%) compared with the nontreated control (0%) (p < 0.05). The antitumoural effect was mediated through modulation of tumour growth, tumour grading, estrogenic activity, and haematological parameters. Our findings demonstrate that systemic administration of TH and MH increases the susceptibility of expression of proapoptotic proteins (Apaf-1, Caspase-9, IFN-γ, IFNGR1, and p53) and decreases the expression of antiapoptotic proteins (TNF-α, COX-2, and Bcl-xL 1) in its mechanism of action. This highlights a potential novel role for TH and MH in alleviating breast cancer.
Highlights
Breast cancer has been recognized as the second most common cancer after lung cancer
At the end of study, the rats in positive control which received no honey treatment (Group 1) had the highest median number of tumours compared with the groups treated with Tualang honey (TH) and Manuka honey (MH) (Groups 2 and 3) (p > 0.05)
Tumour Grading and Histological Features. This was concluded from the grading results that the majority of the tumour specimens in the control group showed patterns of grade III compared with the groups treated with TH and MH (Groups 2 and 3) which exhibit tumours mainly of grade I and II
Summary
Breast cancer has been recognized as the second most common cancer after lung cancer. It is considered as the fifth most common cause of death through cancer and the leading cause of death in women worldwide, surpassing the cervical cancer [1]. In Malaysia, a recent report shows breast cancer as the most frequently diagnosed cancer and the International Agency for Research in Cancer (GLOBOCAN) estimated the ASR (age-standardized rate) of breast cancer in Malaysia as 38.7 per 100,000, listing breast cancer at top among general population of Malaysia [2]. Cancer-therapeutic drugs had an obstacle of collateral damage to the normal cells and tissues [3]. The relapse after chemotherapy, second primary tumours, and resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs have been reported in breast cancer patients [4]. The alternative remedy to these unavoidable side effects is the use of natural products [5]
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