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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2025 Sep 26.
Published in final edited form as: Tumor Discov. 2025 May 5;4(2):42–54. doi: 10.36922/td.8152

Table 1.

Combination treatments with honokiol

Drug/therapeutic name Cancer type/models Key findings References
Chemotherapeutic drugs
 Cisplatin Colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer, oral cancer, lung cancer, and renal cell carcinoma Reduce toxicity, re-sensitization, interleukin-6/STAT3 regulation, dynamin-related protein 1 regulation, and reactive oxygen species and anti-oxidative enzyme regulation 19,28-34
 Paclitaxel (Taxol) Human squamous KB cells, lung cancer, and breast cancer Inhibit cell proliferation and tumor growth, induce paraptosis, downregulation of focal adhesion kinase, PI3K, MMP-2, and MMP-9 19,37-40
 Doxorubicin Breast cancer and cardiomyopathy Inhibit growth and proliferation by regulating microRNA-188-5p, FBXW7, and c-Myc, regulation of mucin 1 and multidrug resistance protein 1, and cardioprotective properties 42-45
 5-fluorouracil Oral cancer, urothelial cell carcinoma, and tongue cancer High apoptosis, suppresses tumor growth, cell cycle arrest, and decreased systemic toxicity 47-49
 Metformin Breast cancer Induce apoptosis and inhibit cell growth 50
 Bleomycin Breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, and melanoma Reduce pulmonary toxicity and inhibit DNA repair 52
Monoclonal antibodies
 Cetuximab Cetuximab-resistant cancer cells Resensitization, regulate HER, MAPK, AKT, and dynamin-related protein 1 pathways 53
Small-molecule inhibitors
 Cabozantinib Renal cell carcinoma Induce reactive oxygen species-mediated apoptosis and autophagy, inhibit Rubicon, p62, and HO-1 57
 Lapatinib Breast cancer Cell cycle arrest induces apoptosis, suppresses PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway 24
 Imatinib Leukemia Inhibit cell adhesion to the extracellular matrix and induce paraptosis 59
 Erlotinib Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and lung cancer Induce apoptosis, inhibit EGFR signaling pathways, including MAPK, AKT, and STAT3 56,60
 Osimertinib Non-small cell lung cancer Inhibit cell proliferation and induce apoptosis, suppress tumor growth even with 19del, T790M, and C797S triple mutations, inhibit p-ERK1/2, and promote myeloid cell leukemia-1 degradation 61
Immunosuppressive drugs in transplantation
 Cyclosporine A Renal cell carcinoma Inhibit cyclosporine A-induced Ras-Raf-ERK and VEGF pathways 74
 Rapamycin Renal cell carcinoma Inhibit cell proliferation and growth, inhibit Rubicon, programmed death-ligand 1, c-mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor, and AXL, and downregulate HO-1 26,77

Abbreviations: AKT: Protein kinase B; EGFR: Epidermal growth factor receptor; ERK: Extracellular signal-regulated kinase; HER: Human epidermal growth factor receptor; HO-1: Heme oxygenase-1; MAPK: Mitogen-activated protein kinase; MMP: Matrix metallopeptidase; mTOR: Mammalian target of rapamycin; PI3K: Phosphoinositide 3-kinase; STAT3: Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3; VEGF: Vascular endothelial growth factor.