Wild Daucus carota oil extract: an innocuous preventative and chemotherapeutic agent against chemically induced breast cancer

Daucus carota L. ssp. carota oil extract (DCOE) was shown to possess potent antitumor activity. This study investigates the chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic effects of DCOE against breast cancer induced by 7,12-Dimethylbenz(a) anthracene (DMBA) in rats. In the chemopreventive study, animals were pre-treated with DCOE (25 mg/kg; 1 week) fol- lowed by 14 weeks of treatment post-cancer induction with DMBA. In the chemotherapeutic study, animals were allocat- ed into control, DCOE (25 mg/kg) and Cisplatin (2.5mg/kg) groups. When tumor size reached a diameter of 14-15 mm, the animals were divided into three groups each injected by either a vehicle (thrice a week), DCOE (thrice a week) or Cis- platin (twice a week), for 8 weeks to compare and assess the therapeutic value of DCOE with respect to Cisplatin and the vehicle. At 24 weeks, the experiment was terminated. DCOE pre-treatment protected against DMBA-induced toxicity and reduced tumor incidence. While 18% of control died few days post DMBA treatment, 100% survival in DCOE pre-treated group was observed just before week 8. In the chemotherapeutic experiment, treatment with either DCOE or Cisplatin caused significant inhibition of tumor growth. Unlike DCOE, Cisplatin caused drastic decrease in body weight with 75% and 100% death rates at week 6 and 8 respectively. DCOE produced a significant increase in Bax/Bcl2 ratio, Cytochrome c and cleaved caspase 3 proteins. DCOE may be considered a safe chemopreventive and/or chemotherapeutic agent, an effect that is partly due to the induction of the intrinsic apoptotic pathway.