Testing Alternative Medicine Effectiveness with Chemotherapy
The concept of integrative medicine claims higher success rates if conventional anti-cancer therapy (e.g. chemotherapy) is combined with alternative treatment. Conventional therapy may be limited by toxicity to the patients or tumor resistance. Many agents from natural sources have shown to have anti-tumor activity. Moreover, some of these agents are able to modulate the cellular enzymatic functions causative for chemotherapy resistance in the tumor cells, which could render the chemoresistant tumor cells again sensitive to chemotherapy.
Drug-transporter molecules (e.g. MDR or MRP) may be induced in tumor cells by chemotherapy. As a consequence, increased efflux of drugs leads to multi-drug resistance of the tumor cells which is a serious problem in cancer treatment. Natural agents like Curcumin or Haelan 951 (an fermented soy-extract) are known modulators of MDR, possibly supporting chemotherapy of tumors showing the MDR-phenotype.
Another mechanism for multidrug resistance is induction of conjugating enzymes leading to increased detoxification of the chemo-drugs. In this context, elevated expression of GST/GCS in tumor cells play an important role. Ellagic acid, an inhibitor of GST may here used to modulate GST-related resistance.
Heat-shock proteins (HSP) may render tumor cells thermoresistant (see below “Hyperthermia”) and resistant to some chemo-drugs. Quercetin is an inhibitor of the heat-shock protein HSP27 and may be used for treatment if tumors show high levels of HSP27.
Testing the use of alternative agents in conjunction with chemotherapy:
For many natural anti-cancer agents, mechanisms of action are known and genetic testing can provide useful advise for appropriate application. Beside the conventional drugs of chemotherapy, alternative agents are also useful in treatment of cancer. Those alternative agents may have anti-cancer activity by directly killing tumor cells, e.g. by induction of apoptosis (programmed cell death). Alternative agents are reported to modulate cellular functions conferring chemo-resistance to the tumor cells. In such cases, supportive therapy with appropriate alternative agents may have synergistic action with conventional chemotherapy. Our testing determines which alternative agents are likely to be effective or which may have a beneficial use especially in conjunction with chemotherapy.
