Breast Cancer Treatment Includes Rosehip Extract; Battles Bust Cancer Cells

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A new study found that rosehip extract can help combat breast cancer, one of the most aggressive kinds of cancer today.

Rosehip, the fruit of the rose plant, contains an extract that can minimize the growth and movement of a type of breast cancer called a triple negative. This type is one of the most difficult to treat and affects mostly young women as well as those who are of African-American or Hispanic descent.

In the study published in News Wise, Dr. Patrick Martin of the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and author of the study said, "Doctors, patients and researchers are looking for alternative treatments for triple negative breast cancer, and people are always looking for ways to prevent cancer."

The triple negative breast cancer got its name from the three missing growth factor receptors normally found in tumors. Normal cancer treatment is rendered useless against this, which is why patients with this kind of cancer have higher death rates than those inflicted with other types of breast cancer, according to Medical Xpress.

In the study, the researchers applied a concentrated rosehip extract to tissue cultures with triple negative breast cancer cells. They found that the cells can be treated by chemotherapy and the migration of the cells was minimized.

"Such findings have raised questions regarding the long and short term post-intervention effects of these two regimens on breast cancer," according to the researchers.

During a gene analysis, the researchers were able to know that rosehip extract was able to enhance the activations of the UPR pro-survival pathways in patients who are African-American.

"My hope is that our studies in tissue cultures, along with future studies in animal models, will lead to rosehip being recommended as a preventative measure in breast cancer or as an addition to current cancer treatment," according to Martin.

"How awesome would it be to be able to say: Here, take a daily vitamin tablet from the rose plant to possibly help prevent or treat cancer? It's a natural product that we found to be effective, with no known side effects."

"There isn't a lot of research on triple negative breast cancer and African-Americans, so we're trying to increase the profile of this particular cancer in the scientific community and in the public eye," said Patrice Cagle, a doctoral student in Martin's lab. She adds that she has a connection to the research because she believes that the "outlook" for African-American women like her was poor and should be investigated further. "I am a young African-American female so there's a higher risk for me to potentially get triple negative breast cancer," Cagle said.

Cagle will be presenting the study at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) during the Experimental Biology 2015 event.