Which botanicals or other unconventional anticancer agents should we take to clinical trial? Review uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • There is significant public and scientific interest as regards unconventional anticancer agents (complementary and alternative medicine [CAM] agents). This article describes five principles pertaining to the question of which CAM agents should be taken to clinical trial: (1) many CAM agents have been proposed as cancer treatments, far more than could possibly be studied in clinical trials; (2) claims by patients or practitioners are generally unhelpful in choosing which CAM agents to test; (3) laboratory studies can help determine which CAM agents to take to trial and with which cointerventions; (4) preliminary laboratory studies are essential to confirm safety before trials can be considered; and (5) the vast majority of anticancer CAM agents will be ineffective; our aim should be to discard agents from consideration as rapidly as possible.

publication date

  • January 1, 2007

Research

keywords

  • Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic
  • Antioxidants
  • Clinical Trials as Topic
  • Complementary Therapies
  • Dietary Supplements
  • Herb-Drug Interactions
  • Herbal Medicine
  • Neoplasms
  • Plants, Medicinal

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC2590766

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 35048893868

PubMed ID

  • 17761132

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 5

issue

  • 3