Kwon et al. BMC Cancer 2010, 10:392 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2407/10/392 Page 7 of 10 Figure 4 Oral administration of cinnamon extract inhibits melanoma growth in vivo. Ten days after melanoma transplantation, cinnamon extract (CE; 400 μg/g mouse weight) or PBS (Cont) was orally administrated every two days for 20 days. (A) Photographs of representative tumors from each group at day 14 and 30. During the treatment period, the tumor volumes (B) and tumors weights (C) and survivor rate (D) in each group were daily measured. Data are representative of three independent experiments (10 mice/each group). One (*) or two (**) asterisks indicates p < 0.05 or p < 0.005, respectively. Data are representative of three individual experiments. NF B and AP1 levels. Indeed, tumor tissues isolated from cinnamon extract treated group (CE) showed a sig- nificant reduction in NF B and AP1 levels compared with PBS treated control group (Cont) (Figure 5D). We also tested whether down-regulation NF B and AP1 leads to a decrease in the levels of their target genes such as Bcl-2, BcL-xL and survivin. The mRNA expres- sion (Figure 5E) and protein (Figure 5F) levels of these target molecules were analyzed from the tumor tissues of each treatment groups. Indeed, tumor tissues from cinnamon extract treated mice showed a significant decrease in the levels of Bcl-2 and BcL-xL compared with control group (Figure 5E and 5F). These data indi- cate that anti-tumoral effects of cinnamon extract is mediated by induction of tumor apoptosis through the inhibition of NF B and AP1 levels. Discussion Cinnamon is a herbal plant that has been used for various purposes as forms of dietary intake, oriental