Breast Cancer-Fighting Plants

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer type, accounting for 1 in 8 cancer diagnoses worldwide. Side effects and the development of resistance to treatment, especially to chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormonal therapy are major obstacles to the effective treatment of breast cancer. Recently, natural products from medicinal plants have gained immense attention as potential breast cancer prevention and therapeutics because of their anti-breast cancer effects. Medicinal plants are beneficial to human health because they contain bioactive compounds responsible for their therapeutic effects. Countless recent studies have confirmed that a large number of plants, traditionally used by local people, are rich sources of bioactive compounds which provide health benefits and also possess strong anti-breast cancer effects. Many plants have antioxidant, antimutagenic, anticarcinogenic, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory activities that play important roles in cancer prevention. Several plants with antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antimutagenic, anticarcinogenic, antiproliferative, antitumor, antimetastasis, antiangiogenesis, immunomodulatory and hepatoprotective activities can play important roles in the treatment of cancers. This book focuses on the main plants, used as food and/or in herbal medicine, that are rich in bioactive compounds with anti-breast cancer activities and proprieties. We provide the common and scientific names of all plants, their main bioactive compounds with anti-breast cancer effects, and their activities and properties against breast cancer. To facilitate the identification of each plant, we give a photo of the used parts for each plant. All data are based on the results of recent scientific studies (377 references, with links to each publication).