Abstract
Unfortunately, majority of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer cannot be cured. Current available systemic chemotherapy and targeted agents produce meaningful improvement in median survival and progression free survival. However toxicity associated with these therapies can worsen the quality of life for patients. Therefore there is an interest in looking at alternative medicine to reduce the side effect and possibly enhance the efficacy of cytotoxic chemotherapy. There are a large number of preclinical studies looking at ginseng products as chemopreventive agents. They induce apoptosis and cytotoxicity in multiple colorectal cell lines but lack of definitive clinical studies. Both curcumin and thymoquinone show promising preclinical data in vitro and in vivo but lack of clinical efficacy studies. There is emerging preclinical data that herbal products in combination with chemotherapy can reduce toxicity and enhance the cytotoxicity of chemotherapeutic agents like 5-fluorouracil. However there is discordance between the amount of preclinical data available and what herbal agents are tested in clinical trial setting. In this chapter, we will review the current data available for herbal medicine in the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer.
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Choi, M., Mohammad, R., Saif, M.W., Kim, R. (2012). Evidence-based Anticancer Materia Medica for Colorectal Cancer. In: Cho, W. (eds) Materia Medica for Various Cancers. Evidence-based Anticancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1983-5_2
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