Wednesday Aug 13, 2014 (foodconsumer.org) -- Chinese researchers have found that taking anthocyanins as dietary supplements along with trastuzumab treatment can help boost the therapeutic activity of the cancer chemotherapy in treating HER2+ breast cancer.

About 25% of invasive breast cancer have overexpressed human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) and patients with breast cancer of this type have poor prognosis.

Anthocyanins namely cyanidin?3?glucoside (C3G) and peonidin?3?glucoside have been identified as potential chemotherapies for the treatment of HER2?positive breast cancer and they have been used as dietary supplements to help treat breast cancer in Asia.

In the current study, supplementation with cyanidin?3?glucoside along with trastuzumab treatment which is indicated to treat HER2+ breast cancer was found to induce apoptosis, inhibit cell growth and affect HER2 and its downstream signaling pathway in three breast cancer cell likes and these effects are synergistic.

Also in a vivo xenograft model, the combinational therapy with cyanidin?3?glucoside and trastuzumab was found to inhibit tumor growth.

The findings suggest that cyanidin?3?glucoside has potent antitumor activity when used together with trastuzumab under the studied conditions.

Breast cancer is diagnosed in more than 230,000 women each year in the United States and the disease and its complications kill more than 35,000 of the patients annually in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Anthocyanins found in many plants act as antioxidants within the human body.  These phytochemicals are available as dietary supplements for those who need high doses for their therapeutic activity.  Those who want to prevent breast cancer may include in their diets anthocyanins rich foods including eggplant, black currant, plums, asparagus, cranberries, blueberries, bananas, red cabbage, grapes, kidney beans and black beans, pomegranates, red peaches, and cherries.

Keep in mind that breast cancer is in many cases preventable and many other things in addition to taking anthocyanins supplements can be done to reduce the risk of breast cancer.  An authoritative organization claims that two certain risk factors for breast cancer are hormone replacement therapy and medical radiation used in diagnostics and cancer treatment. (David Liu)

Liu W, Xu J, Liu Y, Yu X, Tang X, Wang Z, Li X.  Anthocyanins potentiate the activity of trastuzumab in human epidermal growth factor receptor 2?positive breast cancer cells in vitro and in vivo.  Mol Med Rep. 2014 Jul 22.