Findings of a new study suggest that some herbal extracts can enhance the effects of certain medicines. Extract from rose hips, for instance, has been found to reduce the development and migration of breast cancer cells.

Triple negative breast cancer, which commonly affects young women as well as African-American and Hispanic women, is an aggressive form of cancer that does not respond to many treatments given to cancer patients, prompting the search for unconventional ways to treat the disease that comprises 10 percent to 20 percent of breast cancer cases.

The cancer cells in this type of tumor lack the three growth factor receptors that are often targeted by breast cancer treatments, and this is why most available treatments are not effective against it. Patients with this type of cancer who go into remission also have increased death rates in the first three years than patients who have other types of breast cancer.

For the study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET), the researchers treated the tissue cultures of triple negative breast cancer cells with rose hip extract concentration and found that exposure to 1.0 mg/ml of concentration reduced the proliferation of the cancer cells by 50 percent, albeit the effects were not as drastic with decreasing concentration. Further experiments showed that the extract also appears to reduce MAPK and Akt, enzymes known to promote the growth of triple negative breast cancer cells.

The extract also enhanced the ability of doxorubicin, a breast cancer chemotherapy drug, in reducing the proliferation of cells. The results suggest that rose hip extract may provide an added benefit to treatment regimens administered to patients with triple negative breast cancer.

"My hope is that our studies in tissue cultures, along with future studies in animal models, will lead to rose hip being recommended as a preventative measure in breast cancer or as an addition to current cancer treatment," said study researcher Patrick Martin, Ph.D., from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.

Rose hips, the red-orange fruit of the rose plant, are a natural source of vitamin c. The researchers used pure rose hips for their experiment and this can either be purchased in pill or liquid form.

In earlier studies, researchers were able to use rose hip extract to prevent the growth of cancer cells in the brain. They also want to test the effects of the extracts on prostate cancer cells.

Photo: Neil Williamson | Flickr