engleski

Honey as cancer-preventive agent

Background and purpose: Honey has been used as a folk remedy for various ailments, but its heterogeneous composition has limited scientific evaluation of this material. It has been reported that honey possesses moderate antitumor and pronounced antimetastatic effects in murine tumor models. We investigated the antimetastatic efficiency of honey and possible mode of antitumor action. Material and methods: Transplantable murine tumors were used: a spontaneous mammary carcinoma (MCa) and a methylcholanthrene&#8211; induced fibrosarcoma (FS) of CBA mouse and an anaplastic colon adenocarcinoma (ACa) of Y59 rat. Metastases in the lung were generated by injecting viable tumor cells intravenously (iv). Results: A pronounced antimetastatic effect (p < 0.01 ; 0.001) was achieved by oral application of honey given before tumor cell inoculation (2 g/kg for mice or 1 g/kg for rats, once a day for 10 consecutive days) ; however given after tumor cell inoculation honey enhanced lung metastases. Conclusions: These findings indicate that honey activates immune system and may be advantageous with respect to cancer and metastasis prevention. In addition, honey given orally before tumor cell inoculation may have an impact on tumor spread.

honey; tumor; metastasis; mouse; rat; immunomodulation

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