Effect of Herbal Medicines on Treatment of Lung Cancer (SCLC and NSCLC)

Effect of Herbal Medicines on Treatment of Lung Cancer (SCLC and NSCLC)
Alireza Khanalipour Farkhad,¹ Saman Yasamineh,^2,*
1. Institute of Higher Education Rab-Rashid, Tabriz, Iran
2. Young Researchers and Elite Club, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran
Introduction: Lung cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer. An estimated 1.8 million novel lung cancer patients happened in 2012, accounting for approximately 13% of total cancer diagnoses. Lung cancer is classified into two groups of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). There are various treatment methods for lung cancer treatment based on its type. Among such methods are chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, gene treatment, palliative cares. Each of these methods can be used either individually or in combination with other methods for lung cancer treatment. However, sometimes this common therapy methods are not enough and appropriate to treatment of lung cancer. Therefore, it is necessary to use an effective treatment method as an alternative or complementary treatment method. Herbal medicines have been utilized in Oriental countries for centuries as tonics. Several beneficial effects of herbal medicines on cancer have been reported. Herbal medicines can be used along with radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery in treatment of NSCLC and SCLC. This treatment method lead to increase efficiency and decrease side effects of common treatment method including chemotherapy. In this review we focused on properties of the herbs, which are useful in therapy of NSCLC and SCLC.
Methods: In this review we used online database such as NCBI (PubMed), and Google scholar. This Research is the result of a survey of more than 82 articles of which 44 articles are directly used in this study.
Results: Medicinal herbs can considerably decrease tumor size without side effects and also they can reduce lung cancer related pains. In addition, this treatment method as single therapy method and also adjunctive therapy can be used in the treatment of NSCLC and SCLC. For example, Plumbagin, shogaol-6, Radix Sophorae flavescentis, ai-kang, Glycorrhiza glabra (GLYC) and Olenandria diffusa (OLEN) are group of medicinal plants which are useful in treatment of SCLC. Moreover, Cassiae Ramulus Cinnamomi, Paeoniae Rubrae, raw Radix Glycyrrhizae Uralensis, Officinalis Recens Zingiberis rhizome, Radix Scutellariae Baicalensis, Fructus Zizyphi Jujubae are containing cantharidin and plumbagin which led to inhibit of cell division of NSCLC.
Conclusion: Herbals have potential therapeutic value for patients with advanced NSCLC and SCLC. Additionally, herbals medicine has been reported to have different advantageous effects to improve survival rate, and quality of life of patients with lung cancer. As a result, using this treatment can be useful in treatment of NSCLC and SCLC.
Keywords: lung cancer, NSCLC, SCLC, chemotherapy, medicinal herbs