Anti-proliferative effects of ginsenosides extracted from mountain ginseng on lung cancer / 中国结合医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the effect of three major ginsenosides from mountain ginseng as anticancer substance and explore the underlying mechanism involved in lung cancer.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The inhibitory proliferation of lung cancer by major five ginsenosides (Rb1, Rb2, Rg1, Rc, and Re) was examined using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide assay. Calculated 50% inhibition (IC50) values of five ginsenosides were determined and compared each other. Apoptosis by the treatment of single ginsenoside was performed by fluorescence-assisted cytometric spectroscopy. The alterations of apoptosis-related proteins were evaluated by Western blot analysis.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The abundance of ginsenosides in butanol extract of mountain ginseng (BX-MG) was revealed in the order of Rb1, Rg1, Re, Rc and Rb2. Among them, Rb1 was the most effective to lung cancer cell, followed by Rb2 and Rg1 on the basis of relative IC50 values of IMR90 versus A549 cell. The alterations of apoptotic proteins were confirmed in lung cancer A549 cells according to the administration of Rb1, Rb2 and Rg1. The expression levels of caspase-3 and caspase-8 were increased upon the treatment of three ginsenosides, however, the levels of caspase-9 and anti-apoptotic protein Bax were not changed.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Major ginsenosides such as Rb1, Rb2 and Rg1 comprising BX-MG induced apoptosis in lung cancer cells via extrinsic apoptotic pathway rather than intrinsic mitochondrial pathway.</p>

Survival analysis of stage IV metastatic gastric cancer patients treated with HangAm-Plus / 中国结合医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the efficacy of HangAm-Plus (HAP) on stage IV metastatic gastric cancer by analyzing the treated patients' overall survival outcome.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Following the study eligibility, overall survival and one year survival rate of 44 stage IV metastatic gastric cancer patients who visited East-West Cancer Center (EWCC) were analyzed. The study consisted of two arms: HAP treatment only (n=18) and combined treatment of concurrent conventional chemotherapy and HAP (n=26). Patient characteristics by gender, age, surgical intervention, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) score, treatment duration (< 4 weeks or [Symbol: see text]4 weeks), and lines of the chemotherapy received were assessed. Treatment related side effects were also assessed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The median survival of combined group was longer (10.0 months) than that of HAP group (5.1 months). One-year survival rate of combined treatment group and HAP group was 38.5%±9.5% and 33.3%±11.1%, respectively (P>0.05). One-year survival rate of those received more and less than 4-week treatment was 57.1%±18.7% and 8.3%±8.0%, respectively (P=0.001).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The study supports the safety and potential efficacy of HAP treatment in prevention of chemo-related side effects for stage IV metastatic gastric cancer treated with conventional chemotherapy. Further studies are needed to investigate and confirm the results before applying the treatment in clinical settings.</p>

An overview of current oriental medicine herbal cancer research in Korea / 中国结合医学杂志

Cancer is the number one cause of death in Korea with annual mortalities of 69 780. Research suggests one in every four Koreans will end up getting cancer at some point in their life time. With these persistent threats, strive for cancer cure is continued. Ten years of Korea's oriental medicine herbal research on cancer have been reviewed. Researches between the years of 2000 and 2010 are analyzed in terms of their published year, study types, tested subjects, testing measures, cancer types, and institutions. In the past ten years, cancer researches have blossomed from null to full in Korean peninsula, and further development is much anticipated in the next ten years to come.