Table 5.

Possible mechanisms of action of the most common Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) used for breast cancer treatment.

CHM	Possible pharmacologic mechanisms	Reference
HFd
Jia-Wei-Xiao-Yao-San	Increases plasma TNF-alpha levels in depressed menopausal patients	[30]
	Antidepressant effects	[31]
	Possible selective estrogen receptor modulator	[32]
	Reliefs of climacteric symptoms in postmenopausal women without changing in estrogen level	[33]
	Adjusts the abnormal gastric motility and gastric myoelectrical activity of patients with functional dyspepsia	[34]
San-Zhong-Kui-Jian-Tang	Inhibits the proliferation of human breast cancer	[35]
SHe
Hedyotis diffusa	Induces Ca(2+)-mediated apoptosis in human breast cancer cells	[26]
	Induces breast cancer cell apoptosis via mitochondrial pathway	[27]
Scutellaria barbata	Induces oxidative stress damage in breast cancer cells	[25]
	Botanical extract (Bezielle, BZL101) used for metastatic breast cancer	[36]
Salvia miltiorrhiza	Inhibits growth of breast cancer cell	[37]
	Induces apoptosis of breast cancer cell	[38]
Scutellaria baicalensis	Protects against doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity	[39]
Rheum palmatum	Shows cytotoxicity in both ER-positive and -negative breast cancer cell lines	[40]

^dHF refers to a herbal formula; ^eSH refers to a single herb.