Abstract
The complication of multiple brain metastases in breast cancer patients is a life threatening condition with limited success following standard therapies. The arachidonate lipoxygenase pathway appears to play a role in brain tumor growth as well as inhibition of apoptosis in in-vitro studies. The down regulation of these arachidonate lipoxygenase growth stimulating products therefore appeared to be a worthwile consideration for testing in brain metastases not responding to standard therapy. Boswellia serrata, a lipoxygenase inhibitor was applied for this inhibition. Multiple brain metastases were successfully reversed using this method in a breast cancer patient who had not shown improvement after standard therapy. The results suggest a potential new area of therapy for breast cancer patients with brain metastases that may be useful as an adjuvant to our standard therapy.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by The Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust and the M.J. and Caral G. Lebworth Foundation. Special Thanks to Dr. Albert Scheller (deceased 9/’05) of the Leonardis Oncology Clinic in Bad Heilbrunn, Germany for his excellent additional care of this patient, and Dr. Ursula Jacobs for her continued assistance in therapy.
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Flavin, D.F. A lipoxygenase inhibitor in breast cancer brain metastases. J Neurooncol 82, 91–93 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-006-9248-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-006-9248-4