Friday Dec 13, 2013 (foodconsumer.org) -- A compound isolated from a Chinese herb called Dichroa febrifuga or Chang Shan may be used to treat breast cancer, a study published in International Journal of Oncology suggets.

The laboratory study led by Mei Ling Jin and colleagues shows that halofuginone "induces the apoptosis of breast cancer cells and inhibits migration via downregulation of matrix metalloproteinase-9."

The authors conducted experiments earlier and found halofuginone inhibits the growth of breast cancer cells and induces the generation of reactive oxygen species, which can kill cancer cells, and apoptosis, which leads also to the death of cancer cells.

Additionally, halofuginone was also found to significantly reduce "the migration and invasion of MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells after 12-O-tetraecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) stimulation." and "suppresses MMP-9 expression and activity concentration-dependently."

Furthermore halofuginone lowers the nuclear protein concentrations of nuclear factor kappa B and c-fos, which are important for regulation of MMP-9 expression.

The results of the study indicate that halofuginone is a promising chemotherapy against breast cancer.(David Liu, PHD)