HonCode

Go Back   HER2 Support Group Forums > Articles of Interest
Register Gallery FAQ Members List Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 11-27-2005, 10:54 PM   #1
Liza
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Tampa
Posts: 4
Herceptin combined w/ primrose oil more effective

Hello all,

The following article is of interest to all of us, I think:

Primose Oil Component Cuts Levels of Cancer Gene

CHICAGO --- Gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), a substance in evening primrose oil and several other plant oils used in herbal medicine, inhibits action of Her-2/neu, a cancer gene that is responsible for almost 30 percent of all breast cancers, Northwestern University researchers report.

“Breast cancer patients with Her-2/neu-positive tumors have an aggressive form of the disease and a poor prognosis,” said Ruth Lupu, director of Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Breast Cancer Translational Research Program, who led the study, published in the Nov. 2 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Lupu is professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a researcher at The Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.

Lupu and co-investigator Javier Menendez showed that treating cancer cells that overexpressed Her-2/neu with GLA not only suppressed protein levels of the oncogene, but also caused a 30- to 40-fold increased response in breast cancer cells to the drug HerpetinTM (trastuzumab), a monoclonal antibody that is used for the treatment of many women with breast cancer.

Menendez is research assistant professor of medicine at Feinberg and a scientist at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Research Institute.

“In our tests, treating the cancer cell lines with both GLA and Herceptin led to a synergistic increase in apoptosis [cell death] and reduced cancer growth. Therefore, although further studies are necessary before GLA can enter clinical trials, these findings may reveal a previously unrecognized way of influencing the poor outcome of Her-2/neu-positive cancer patients,” Lupu said.

“GLA’s inhibition of Her-2/neu works in a different manner from that of Herceptin,” Menendez said.

“While Herceptin attempts to neutralize thousands of Her-2/neu molecules commonly found in the surface of overexpressing cancer cells, GLA would be more efficient to reduce Her-2/neu levels by preventing the transcription of few Her-2/neu gene copies,” Menendez said.

“Considering that activation and overexpression of the Her-2/neu oncogene are crucial events in the cause, progression and cell sensitivity to various treatments in breast cancer, results of the study reveal a valuable means by which an inexpensive herbal medicine might regulate breast cancer cell growth, metastasis formation and response to chemotherapies and endocrine therapies,” Lupu said.

GLA exerts selective toxic effects on cancer cells without affecting normal cells. Menendez’s earlier research showed that supplementation with GLA sensitizes breast cancer cells to some chemotherapeutic drugs, such as paclitaxel (TaxolTM), docetaxel (TaxotereTM) and vinorelbine (NavelbineTM). Lupu and Menendez recently demonstrated that GLA also enhances the efficacy of anti-estrogens, such as tamoxifen and FaslodexTM.

“Since overexpression of Her-2/neu generally confers resistance to chemo- and endocrine therapies, our current findings can explain why GLA increases the efficacy of breast cancer treatments,” Menendez said.

GLA is one of two essential fatty acids – fats that are necessary for maintaining normal functioning and growth of cells, nerves, muscles and organs. Besides evening primrose oil, other sources of GLAs include borage oil and black currant seed oil.

Besides Menendez, other authors on the study were Luciano Vellon, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Research Institute; and Ramon Colomer, head of the medical oncology division at the Institut Catala d’Oncologia, Girona, Spain.

This research was supported by grant BRCTR0403141 from the Susan G. Komen Foundation and BC033538 from the Breast Cancer Program of the Department of Defense.



I showed this article to my oncologist, and he gave me the go-ahead to begin taking primrose oil. I've contacted Ruth Lupu, mentioned in the article, to ask her which brand of primrose oil she recommends, and will post her answer if and when I receive it. Here is a link to the above article, for those of you who are interested:

Primose Oil Component Cuts Levels of Cancer Gene, NewsCenter, Northwestern University

Hugs to all,
Liza
Liza is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-30-2005, 04:02 AM   #2
Unregistered
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Exclamation Need To Be Informed

Please see the other posts on primrose oil, and omega three and six.

It is not that simple. Primrose oil contains significant quantities of omega six. Too much omega six is a definative baddy, so it is a question of balancing things up. I read the report of the trial. Beacuse of the "test tube" nature of the trial, and the bodies pathways for dealing with fats it is a great deal more complex than the attached report would suggest.

I am not saying don't take merely be informed and that there are sources with lower levels of omega six eg borage oil, and it is essential to balance the fats intake.

AGAIN please do read the recommended posts which contain other advice and links.

RB
  Reply With Quote
Old 11-30-2005, 04:11 AM   #3
Unregistered
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Well done for posting, and taking an interest in diet. Please excuse me if the above is a bit curt, i did not mean to be. It is a subject I have a bee in my bonnet about, and get mad with oversimplifications, I hope I did not discourage you from future posts.

Discussion all adds to knowledge.


I get pulled up too!.

Thanks RB
  Reply With Quote
Old 11-30-2005, 10:53 AM   #4
Liza
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Tampa
Posts: 4
RB,

No need to worry...you didn't offend me at all. I'm grateful to you, actually, for posing the question, as my intent is always to find reliable information. And I didn't mean to mislead others with my original post. The source of the article was the Northwestern University website (reputable, in my opinion) and I did check this out with my oncologist, whom I consider to be excellent (he has "bookoos" of credentials). HOWEVER, I'm very proactive and definitely see a need for being proactive, even with the most qualified team of treatment specialists, and your admonition certainly seems to be worth exploring, so I will do that and again, I'm appreciative to you for leading me in this direction.

Liza
Liza is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-01-2005, 03:19 PM   #5
Unregistered
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
I am not questioning the integrity of the authors. The report of what I beleive is the trial does make the point that GLA is to be found in plant oils. The trial refers to GLA treatment, and makes no mention of use of the plant oils in the tests. I do not know if they had access to pure GLA. If they did use plant oils it would complicate any conclusion because of the presence of other potential factors, and there was no mention of such factors. I have found the trial link.

http://jncicancerspectrum.oxfordjour...nci;97/21/1611

I also attach a link to an NCBI search, which produced 37 results on a search from breast cance and gamma linolenic acid (should have been linolenic) .

I also attach an abstract dealing with another trial which although earlier comes to another conclusion.

I have also seen a trial on rats or mice which from memory suggested that some GLA did indeed get into the tumour in lipid form I presume, but most was used in the usual pathways. I will try and refind it - found it!. I don't totally understand it but it makes the point as to various parhways and tumours storing or using GLA (as fuel ?). I have seen reports that tumours also do this with linoleic acid, and hence my questions as to whether this was the body trying to find things to do with excess omega six. At a lay level tumours are clearly doing something the GLA. The trials report GLA induces supression in tumours but the body has to take it there first rather than use it for something else, which at some level it look from animal results as if it may.

These trials as pointed out often may not relate to the specific cancer type of interest. Further you really need to look at the full reports as for example if other fats were included or excluded the result may be different.

At the end of the day it is a case of a best guesstimate. Mine would be to include some GLA, but the key factor is to cut down omega six and include omega three, and take any omega six that comes with the GLA into the picture.

So I am not against or suggesting the trial write up was wrong merely it is more complex, and a question exists if the negative impacts of excess omega six that come with the GLA may exceed the benifits of GLA. It is all hugely complex - the more you look the more you realise how amazingly complex and subltle it all is.

The combined impact with Herceptin is particularly interesting.

RB


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...linolenic+acid

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...296&query_hl=4
  Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 11:23 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Copyright HER2 Support Group 2007 - 2021
free webpage hit counter