Evaluation of Essiac Tea to Prevent Mammary Tumors
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: Breast cancer will be diagnosed in 18,000 Californian women in 2001. Preventing breast cancer, both primary tumors and recurrences, is preferable to treating disease. The purpose of this research is to determine if Essiac tea, a complementary therapy widely self-administered by breast cancer survivors and patients, prevents breast cancer. Complementary therapies are not always discussed with physicians. When alternative approaches are discussed, counseling is hindered by large gaps in knowledge about safety, efficacy, and potential drug interactions. Essiac Tea, an herbal mixture introduced in the 1920’s to treat cancer, is commonly used today by breast cancer survivors to try to prevent recurrence. The biological activities of the individual herbs used in one Essiac tea formulation have characteristics associated with decreasing cancer risk. Many herbs used in Essiac tea have long histories of use in Asian diets and medicines. In spite of its potential benefits, Essiac tea is not the subject of any published reports evaluating its efficacy to prevent breast cancer. Because it is widely used, it is important to fill the knowledge gap about the ability of Essiac tea to prevent cancer.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The central question addressed by this application is: "To what extent does Essiac tea treatment reduce mammary tumor development in rodents?" The ducts of the mammary gland, through which milk is delivered to the suckling newborn, can be visualized as tree branches. We expect that Essiac exposure will reduce tumors and that this reduction will be associated with changes in the branching pattern of the mammary tree.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Two mammalian models (models with mammary glands) will be used to determine if drinking Essiac tea can reduce cancer development. Mammary tumor inhibition by Essiac tea will be studied in rats that are treated with a chemical to induce tumors. This approach is well-described and its use in tumor prevention studies is well-accepted by the scientific community. A mouse model will be used that develops mammary tumors because the Neu oncogene (a cancer gene) is overactive which results in uncontrolled cell growth in the mammary ducts. Thirty percent of breast tumors make too much of the Her-2/Neu cancer protein; patients with this type of breast tumor have lower survival and an increased risk of metastasis than other breast cancer patients. In this study, the number of animals with tumors, the average number of tumors per animal, and the complexity of ductal branching will be compared between Essiac tea treated and untreated animals.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 This proposal is unique because it will rigorously test Essiac tea for its ability to prevent mammary tumors in well established animal models. In addition to the evaluation of Essiac on tumor development, ductal branching patterns will also be studied. If Essiac tea does not inhibit or increases mammary tumor development, this information could be used to direct patients to other complementary therapies. If mammary tumors are inhibited by Essiac tea, this would open doors to perform studies in cancer survivors to evaluate the ability of Essiac tea to prevent recurrence and to determine how our daughters might benefit from its use with population studies. In addition, studies would be designed to determine how Essiac tea works, what affect it has on the body, and if there are herbal-drug interactions. These studies would be necessary to develop science-based recommendations for its use among Californians.