Table 1.
Herbs used as cancer treatments
| Herb name | Cancer type | Reported outcome | Prospective research* | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essiac | Prostate | Decrease PSA levels from87.19 to 0.12 ng/ml | No | Al-Sukhni W5 |
| PC-SPES | Prostate | Less than 50% decrease in PSA level | Yes | Urakami S6 |
| PC-SPES | Prostate | Decrease PSA levels from 100 to 24 ng/ml and386 to114 ng/ml | Yes | De la Taille A7 |
| PC-SPES | Prostate | Decrease PSA levels from 8.8 to 0.1 ng/ml | Yes | Moyad MA8 |
| PC-SPES | Prostate | Increase serum PSA levels ranging from345% to 880% after discontinuation of PC-SPES | Yes | Oh WK9 |
| Chinese herbal medicine# | Lung | Complete Regression | No | Liang HL10 |
| Oriental herbal medicine and Lyophyllum decates sing | Lung | Partial response | No | Kato S11 |
| Ninjin yoei To (Traditional Chinese Medicine herbal medicine) | Lung | Decreased tumor marker levels CEA: 14.6 to11.3 ng/ml; CA19-9: 55 to39.2 U/ml | No | Kamei T12 |
| Chinese herbal extract (specific herbal component not identified) | CLL | Complete Remission | No | Battle TE13 |
| Ganoderma lucidum | Gastric large B-cell Lymphoma | Complete regression | Yes | Cheuk W14 |
| Green Tea | CLL | Partial response | Yes | Shanafelt TD15 |
| Mixture of 36 herbs | Intracranial tumor(teratoid/rhabdoid tumor) | Complete response | No | Howes TL16 |
| Hochu-ekki-to | Lymphoma (Mycosis fungoides) | Partial improvement of skin eruption | No | Tokura Y17 |
| Mistletoe | Malignant melanoma | Complete remission of liver metastasis | Yes | Kirsch A18 |
| Mistletoe | CD 30+ cutaneous lymphoproliferative lymphoma | Complete regression | Yes | Seifert G19 |
| Morinda citrifolia (noni) | Gastric Cancer | Tumour suppression | Yes | Wong DK20 |
| Peruvian herbal tea | Barrett’s adenocarcinoma | Seven year survival | No | Mason GR21 |
| Mixture of 9 herbs | Hepatocellular | Complete regression | No | Cheng HM22 |
*
Indicates whether or not there was at least one trial of the herb as a potential cancer therapeutic listed in Clinicaltrials.gov or reported in MEDLINE.
PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen)
#
Components of Chinese herbal medicine: Herba Hedyotis diffusae, Maidong Radix ophiopogonis, Pugongying Herba taraxaci, Sanqi Radix notoginseng, Shancigu Pseudobulbus, Cremastrae seupleiones, Xiyangshen Radix Panacis quinquefolii, Yuxingcao Herba houttuyniae, Zhebeimu Bulbus Fritillariae thunbergii, Zhibanxia Rhizoma Pinelliae preparata