Table 3.

Clinical studies of the anti-cancer effects of commonly studied herbs.

Herbs	Main Active Chemical Constituents /Quantity	Study Design	Endpoints and Results	References
Garlic	-	Population-based, case control, 314 cases and 346 controls	Inverse association between breast cancer and moderate as well as high consumption	[89]
Camellia sinensis (Green tea)	Epigallocatechin-3-gallate	Case-control study of 1009 female breast cancer patients and age-matched controls	Significant protection against breast cancer (OR = 0.61)	[93]
Camellia sinensis (Green tea)	Epigallocatechin-3-gallate	472 female breast cancer patients with stage I, II and stage III disease	(i) Relative risk of recurrence of 0.564 (95% CI: 0.35 - 0.91) (ii) Prior use before diagnosis was significantly associated with better prognosis of stage I and II	[94]
Flaxseed (dietary)	Lignans	Ontario Women’s Diet and Health Study of 2,999 cases and 3,370 controls	Significant decrease in breast cancer risk (OR = 0.77)	[95]
Flaxseed (dietary)	Lignans	Randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial of postmenopausal women newly diagnosed with breast cancer	Reduced tumor growth associated with downregulation of c-erbB2 expression and reduced Ki-67 labeling index	[96]
Nigella sativa	Nigella sativa 5% gel	Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial comprising 62 breast cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy	Significantly reduced the severity of acute radiation dermatitis and delays the onset of moist desquamation	[97]