Abstract
Background: Women who are diagnosed with breast cancer often self-administer complementary and alternative medicines to augment their conventional treatments, improve health, or prevent recurrence. Flor-Essence ® tonic is a complex mixture of herbal extracts used by cancer patients because of anecdotal evidence that it can treat or prevent disease. Methods: Female Sprague-Dawley rats were given water or exposed to 3 or 6% Flor-Essence ® beginning at 1 day of age. Mammary tumors were induced with a single oral 40 mg/kg/bw dose of dimethyl-benz[a]anthracene at 50 days of age and sacrificed at 23 weeks. Rats were maintained on AIN-76A diet. Results: Control rats had palpable mammary tumor incidence of 51.0% at 19 weeks of age compared to 65.0 and 59.4% for the 3 and 6% Flor-Essence ® groups respectively. Overall, no significant difference in time until first palpable tumor was detected among any of the groups. At necropsy, mammary tumor incidence was 82.5% for controls compared to 90.0 and 97.3% for rats consuming 3 and 6% Flor-Essence ®, respectively. Mean mammary tumor multiplicity (±SES) for the controls was 2.8 (±0.5) and statistically different from the 3 or 6% Flor-Essence ® groups with 5.2 (±0.7), and 4.8 (±0.6), respectively (p £ 0.01). As expected, the majority of isolated tumors were diagnosed as adenocarcinomas. Conclusions: Flor-Essence ® can promote mammary tumor development in the Sprague-Dawley rat model. This observation is contrary to widely available anecdotal evidence as well as the desire of the consumer that this commercially available herbal tonic will suppress and/or inhibit tumor growth.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 87-93 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Breast Cancer Research and Treatment |
| Volume | 88 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 2004 |
| Externally published | Yes |
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Keywords
- complementary and alternative medicine
- DMBA tumors
- herbal tonic
- mammary tumors
- Sprague-Dawley rat model
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Oncology
- Cancer Research
Cite this
Flor-Essence® herbal tonic does not inhibit mammary tumor development in Sprague Dawley rats. / Michelle Bennett, L.; Montgomery, Jennifer L.; Steinberg, Seth M.; Kulp, Kristen S.
In: Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, Vol. 88, No. 1, 11.2004, p. 87-93.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Flor-Essence® herbal tonic does not inhibit mammary tumor development in Sprague Dawley rats
AU - Michelle Bennett, L.
AU - Montgomery, Jennifer L.
AU - Steinberg, Seth M.
AU - Kulp, Kristen S.
PY - 2004/11
Y1 - 2004/11
N2 - Background: Women who are diagnosed with breast cancer often self-administer complementary and alternative medicines to augment their conventional treatments, improve health, or prevent recurrence. Flor-Essence ® tonic is a complex mixture of herbal extracts used by cancer patients because of anecdotal evidence that it can treat or prevent disease. Methods: Female Sprague-Dawley rats were given water or exposed to 3 or 6% Flor-Essence ® beginning at 1 day of age. Mammary tumors were induced with a single oral 40 mg/kg/bw dose of dimethyl-benz[a]anthracene at 50 days of age and sacrificed at 23 weeks. Rats were maintained on AIN-76A diet. Results: Control rats had palpable mammary tumor incidence of 51.0% at 19 weeks of age compared to 65.0 and 59.4% for the 3 and 6% Flor-Essence ® groups respectively. Overall, no significant difference in time until first palpable tumor was detected among any of the groups. At necropsy, mammary tumor incidence was 82.5% for controls compared to 90.0 and 97.3% for rats consuming 3 and 6% Flor-Essence ®, respectively. Mean mammary tumor multiplicity (±SES) for the controls was 2.8 (±0.5) and statistically different from the 3 or 6% Flor-Essence ® groups with 5.2 (±0.7), and 4.8 (±0.6), respectively (p £ 0.01). As expected, the majority of isolated tumors were diagnosed as adenocarcinomas. Conclusions: Flor-Essence ® can promote mammary tumor development in the Sprague-Dawley rat model. This observation is contrary to widely available anecdotal evidence as well as the desire of the consumer that this commercially available herbal tonic will suppress and/or inhibit tumor growth.
AB - Background: Women who are diagnosed with breast cancer often self-administer complementary and alternative medicines to augment their conventional treatments, improve health, or prevent recurrence. Flor-Essence ® tonic is a complex mixture of herbal extracts used by cancer patients because of anecdotal evidence that it can treat or prevent disease. Methods: Female Sprague-Dawley rats were given water or exposed to 3 or 6% Flor-Essence ® beginning at 1 day of age. Mammary tumors were induced with a single oral 40 mg/kg/bw dose of dimethyl-benz[a]anthracene at 50 days of age and sacrificed at 23 weeks. Rats were maintained on AIN-76A diet. Results: Control rats had palpable mammary tumor incidence of 51.0% at 19 weeks of age compared to 65.0 and 59.4% for the 3 and 6% Flor-Essence ® groups respectively. Overall, no significant difference in time until first palpable tumor was detected among any of the groups. At necropsy, mammary tumor incidence was 82.5% for controls compared to 90.0 and 97.3% for rats consuming 3 and 6% Flor-Essence ®, respectively. Mean mammary tumor multiplicity (±SES) for the controls was 2.8 (±0.5) and statistically different from the 3 or 6% Flor-Essence ® groups with 5.2 (±0.7), and 4.8 (±0.6), respectively (p £ 0.01). As expected, the majority of isolated tumors were diagnosed as adenocarcinomas. Conclusions: Flor-Essence ® can promote mammary tumor development in the Sprague-Dawley rat model. This observation is contrary to widely available anecdotal evidence as well as the desire of the consumer that this commercially available herbal tonic will suppress and/or inhibit tumor growth.
KW - complementary and alternative medicine
KW - DMBA tumors
KW - herbal tonic
KW - mammary tumors
KW - Sprague-Dawley rat model
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=8744314063&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=8744314063&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10549-004-1203-5
DO - 10.1007/s10549-004-1203-5
M3 - Article
C2 - 15538049
AN - SCOPUS:8744314063
VL - 88
SP - 87
EP - 93
JO - Breast Cancer Research and Treatment
JF - Breast Cancer Research and Treatment
SN - 0167-6806
IS - 1
ER -