Abstract
We note with deep sadness the passing of Dr Norman R. Farnsworth, a member of the Advisory Board of ICT from its inception, on September 12, 2012, after a period of declining health. Dr Farnsworth held the title of Distinguished Professor of Pharmacognosy in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), an institution he first joined in 1970. He was a renowned scholar in the area of natural products drug development and herbal medicine. He founded the NAPRALERT database on medicinal plants, was the director of the Botanical Dietary Supplements for Women’s Health Center at UIC, and cofounded the journal Phytomedicine. I had the privilege of knowing Norm through participating in the UIC Functional Foods for Health Program. He was a unique character, brash, funny, and outspoken—and fiercely loyal and supportive to those he employed and the students and postdocs he mentored. All in the field of natural products research will miss him.
We begin this issue with a survey on complementary and alternative medicine use from Canada by Maida Sewitch and colleagues at St Mary’s Hospital in Montreal. A notable finding of this article is the use of natural health products by at least 70% of the respondents, emphasizing the importance of the work Dr Farnsworth promoted.
Dr Shuenn-Tsong Young and colleagues at the National Yang-Ming University in Taipei contribute a pilot study of music therapy, examining its effect on heart rate variability and aspects of autonomic functioning for cancer patients treated with anthracyclines. Because of the cardiac damage of anthracyclines, work of this type is of substantial importance.
Another National Yang-Ming University group, led by Jen-Hwey Chiu, presents a study of the use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) use by prostate cancer patients, based on records of the Taiwan National Health Insurance system from 1996 to 2008. While most TCM use was not cancer specific, the cancer-related visits quadrupled during this time period.
The first article in the experimental section of this issue is by Randy Burd and colleagues at the University of Arizona. This review article explores the possibility of regulating melanoma growth by targeting the expression of tyrosinase with quercetin. This interesting natural compound may affect melanoma through multiple tyrosinase-related pathways.
Two articles from Kaohsiung Medical University in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, consider phytochemicals from higher plants and their effects on cancer cells. Po-Lin Kuo and colleagues tested the antimigration and antiinvasive effect of glabridin, a flavonoid from licorice, on lung cancer cells. This phytochemical also has anti-angiogenesis effects. Ya-Ling Hsu and colleagues examined the butanolide, isolinderanolide B, from Cinnamomum subavenium. This phytochemical exerts an antiapoptotic effect.
Cordyceps sinensis is a fungus that parasitizes caterpillars, and is prized in TCM. It is traditionally collected by digging up the earth-dwelling caterpillars, but newer methods are able to culture the fungus on grains or in liquid culture. Polysaccharides of the fungus were tested by Ningfei Ji and colleagues at the Jiangsu Provincial Geriatric Hospital in combination with cisplatin, to determine whether the fungus might exert an adjuvant effect with the drug on lung cancer cells; results of their study are presented in the current issue.
Xiaosong Li and colleagues at the University of Central Oklahoma explored the interesting technique of laser immunotherapy, in which an immunostimulant (chitosan) and a light-absorbing dye are injected into a tumor, followed by exposure to a near-infrared laser. This study was performed on tumor-bearing mice that underwent surgical resection of their tumors, followed by the laser technique. This is certainly a method that merits further exploration.
Satish Rao and colleagues at Manipal Life Sciences Centre in Karnataka state in India contribute an article on radioprotection. This group explored the use of thymol, a phytochemical found in thyme and oregano, to protect normal cells from radiation effects. Free radical scavenging and modulation of oxidative stress are the mechanisms they observed in thymol’s protective activity.
In the online-only section of the journal we have 2 articles. Hwa-Seung Yoo and colleagues at the East-West Cancer Center in Daejeon University in Korea report on a relative of Cordyceps sinensis, Cordyceps militaris, in combination with Panax notoginseng, a relative of the common Asian ginseng. Tumor regressions were observed in 2 patients taking this combination.
Finally, the in-development drug roscovitine, derived from a radish phytochemical, was tested as an adjuvant to quercetin-induced cell killing as well as to carboplatin. The authors, Manoj Bhat and colleagues at the National Centre for Cell Science in Pune, India, tested the effect of these compounds on hepatoceullular carcinoma, a cancer rare in the United States and Europe, but with an annual occurrence of 1 million cases worldwide, and thus one that certainly requires attention.
As we hope you agree, the increasing sophistication and range of studies and research that we at ICT have published for the past year is just one sign of the evolution of the field of integrative cancer treatment.