Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2015 Dec;20(4):223-31.
doi: 10.15430/JCP.2015.20.4.223. Epub 2015 Dec 30.

Natural Products for Chemoprevention of Breast Cancer

Eun-Yi Ko  1 , Aree Moon  1
Affiliations
Review

Natural Products for Chemoprevention of Breast Cancer

Eun-Yi Ko et al. J Cancer Prev. 2015 Dec.

Abstract

Breast cancer is the primary cause of cancer death in women. Although current therapies have shown some promise against breast cancer, there is still no effective cure for the majority of patients in the advanced stages of breast cancer. Development of effective agents to slow, reduce, or reverse the incidence of breast cancer in high-risk women is necessary. Chemoprevention of breast cancer by natural products is advantageous, as these compounds have few side effects and low toxicity compared to synthetic compounds. In the present review, we summarize natural products which exert chemopreventive activities against breast cancer, such as curcumin, sauchinone, lycopene, denbinobin, genipin, capsaicin, and ursolic acid. This review examines the current knowledge about natural compounds and their mechanisms that underlie breast cancer chemopreventive activity both in vitro and in vivo. The present review may provide information on the use of these compounds for the prevention of breast cancer.

Keywords: Breast neoplasm; Chemoprevention; Curcumin; Lycopene; Sauchinone.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Chemical structures of natural products: (A) Curcumin; (B) Capsaicin; (C) Lycopene; (D) Sauchinone; (E) Genipin; (F) Denbinobin; and (G) Ursolic acid.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Chemopreventive effects of natural compounds on breast cancer.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Jemal A, Bray F, Center MM, Ferlay J, Ward E, Forman D. Global cancer statistics. CA Cancer J Clin. 2011;61:69–90. doi: 10.3322/caac.20107. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cazzaniga M, Bonanni B. Breast cancer chemoprevention: old and new approaches. J Biomed Biotechnol. 2012;2012:985620. doi: 10.1155/2012/985620. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Khazaei Koohpar Z, Entezari M, Movafagh A, Hashemi M. Anticancer activity of curcumin on human breast adenocarcinoma: role of Mcl-1 gene. Iran J Cancer Prev. 2015;8:e2331. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Conney AH, Lysz T, Ferraro T, Abidi TF, Manchand PS, Laskin JD, et al. Inhibitory effect of curcumin and some related dietary compounds on tumor promotion and arachidonic acid metabolism in mouse skin. Adv Enzyme Regul. 1991;31:385–96. doi: 10.1016/0065-2571(91)90025-H. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Menon LG, Kuttan R, Kuttan G. Anti-metastatic activity of curcumin and catechin. Cancer Lett. 1999;141:159–65. doi: 10.1016/S0304-3835(99)00098-1. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources