Page 113#30. Artemisinin
The Chinese herb compound Artemisinin may prevent breast cancer, say
researchers from the University of Washington. It’s also a new buzz treatment for
malaria, by the way!
The compound, extracted from sweet wormwood Artemisia annua L, cut the
development of breast cancer by 40 per cent in rats that had been given a
cancer-causing agent.
Artemisinin has previously been shown to selectively kill cancer cells, and is
already used as an effective anti-malaria treatment. “With the results of this
study, it’s an attractive candidate for cancer prevention,” said researcher Henry
Lai.
The study, published in the January 2006 issue of Cancer Letters (vol 231, issue
1, pp 43-48), used rats treated with a single dose of DMBA (50 mg per kg), a
compound known to induce multiple breast cancer. The rats were then randomly
divided into two groups, with one group’s feed supplemented with 0.02 per cent
artemisinin.
The rats with the supplemented feed showed a 40 per cent lower incidence of
breast cancer formation than the control group. In addition, the tumours that did
develop in the case group were smaller and fewer.
“Since artemisinin is a relatively safe compound that causes no known side
effects even at high oral doses, the present data indicate that artemisinin may be
a potent cancer-chemoprevention agent,” said the researchers.
Artemisinin works by reacting with iron in the body and forming free radicals that
attack the cells from within. Cancer cells replicate at a higher rate than normal
cells and so have a higher concentration of iron. This makes artemisinin highly
toxic to the cancer cells.
The same mechanism is responsible for its anti-malarial properties. The parasite
that causes malaria cannot eliminate the iron from the blood cells it eats and
stores it. The artemisinin makes the stored iron poisonous to the parasite.
Artemisinin is now a major component in the treatment of malaria is China,
Vietnam and other areas of Asia and Africa.
But the results of the present study were greeted with guarded optimism by Dr
Emma Knight, science information officer for British charity Cancer Research UK.