According to the 2016 Canadian Cancer Statistics1, the incidence rate of uterine cancer is higher than the sum of the ovarian & cervical cancers. Uterine cancer accounts for 6,600 new cases each year with corresponding 1,100 deaths recorded. The annual percent change in uterine cancer incidence rate is +2.5% in the 2001-2010 study. The incidence of uterine cancer is maximal from menopause to post-menopause corresponding to the 55-85 age groups. The 5-year net survival rate for uterine cancers in the 2006-2008 study was 84%. Uterine cancers compromise severely women fertility when it occurs before the fertility day whereas the development of uterine tumors during the embryonic or fetal gestation can significantly affect women’s ability to carry their baby to term.
Several clinical studies showed that herbal therapies were used along with chemotherapy, radiation or surgery by 15-23% women in clinics for treating their reproductive cancerous conditions in the USA, 10-15% in the UK, and 11-19% in Canada2-5. Among women with uterine fibroids (i.e. a non-cancerous tumor), 37% used herbal treatment to relieve their symptoms and 38% of them experienced physiological improvement while side effects less than 5% were recorded6.
Herbal-drug interaction is not always incompatible and contraindicated. Most medical professionals are reluctant to refer patients to herbal medicine prescriptions because of little scientific evidence. Fortunately, a proportion of medical doctors and gynecologists accept to recommend herbs to their patients because of their considerable therapeutic activities. For instance, the Company fosters high standard values, e.g. quality control & quality assurance, in its products which make them safe to use and help recover patients’ condition. In addition, optimizing our proprietary formulations in clinical studies is going to validate staging-specific treatments of endometrial cancers.
An excellent study measured the effects of different fungi extracts + inhibitors in time and dose-dependent manner using human endometrial cancer cell lines, e.g. Ishikawa cells (stage I tumor), Hec-1A cells (stage II tumor) & AN3-CA cells (stage III tumor). Compared to untreated control cells exposed only to ABM/Reishi extracts for three days, all stages cancer cells viability were reduced below 20%. The phosphorylated AKT in PI3K/AKT pathway in all stage cells was significantly repressed following 24-48h incubation of ABM/Reishi extract which aligns with increased autophagic death cells. All stage endometrial cancer cells viability decreased further when incubated with cisplatin in combination with ABM/Reishi or Cordyceps extracts7. This approach proves that the research program we intend to design can demonstrate the practicality in delivering specific treatments to staging-endometrial cancers.
A US patent8 determined the weight percentage of active triterpenes of herbal extracts of groups A1, A2 & A3 having different amounts of Antrodia cinnamomea, Astragalus membranaceus & Leonurus japonicas. Group A3 had the highest amount of active ingredients. An in vitro pharmacological study evaluated human uterine sarcoma cells (MES-SA) viability and then their lowest percentage survival rate after administrating herbal extract group A3 (15.2%) compared to DMSO (negative control; 83.5%). An in vivo pharmacological study using Wister female rats at 2 months old, i.e. considered young adult stage, fed orally with group A3 following by 200 mg estrogen via intraperitoneal injection had estrogen and progesterone levels decreased by 47.5% and 33.1%, respectively, indicating the administration of estrogen alone (control group) did induce uterine fibroids in rats, but the administration of herbal extract counteracted estrogen, and therefore inhibited the proliferation and hypertrophy of the uterine smooth muscle cells. Several active ingredients in the herbal extract invention have acted synergistically to down-regulate both hormones level, repressed the growth of uterine fibroids on histologic specimen hematoxylin and eosin staining; thus preventing menstrual pain and bleeding caused by the growth of uterine fibroids. Therefore, integrating herbal medicine with bioidentical hormone therapy is another approach used to treat reproductive neoplasms.
- Canadian Cancer Statistics 2016. Special topic: HPV-associated cancers.
- Gynecol Oncol. 2002; 84(3):363-367.
- Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2003; 12(4):321-326.
- Climacteric 2017; 20(3):240-247.
- Int J GynecolCancer 2011; 21(3):587-593.
- Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 2014; 220-225.
- Int J Oncol. 2014;45(1):373-382.
- Patent: Herbal composition and a method of treating uterine fibroids, 2014; US9220738 B1.