#3115 Strategies to Identify Herbal Compounds for Cancer Clinical Trials. I Cohen, B Hamilton, M Tagliaferri, M Campbell, M Shumaker, D Tripathy; University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA Herbal Therapies are commonly used worldwide for the treatment of cancer, yet laboratory and clinical evaluations have not been systematically conducted. We assessed 69 botanical and 2 zoological compounds based on traditional Chinese Medicine pracice patterns for breast cancer. Aqueous extracts from these materials, prepared as a tea in the traditional manner, were evaluated in vitro on four human breast cancer cell lines (SKBR2, MCF7, MDA-MB231, and BT474)and one murine breast cancer cell line (MCNeuA)using the anti-prolferative crystal violet assay. Nineteen of the 71 extracts (27% tested at a 1:10 dilution, demonstrated 50% growth inhibition on three or more of the five cell lines. Sixteen of the 71 extracts (23%) exhibited pronounced effects (75% growth inhibition) on at least one of the five cell lines. Dose/response curves were obtained for several of the most potent extracts and demonstrated ID50 values ranging from <10 ug/ml to 1 mg/ml. Preliminary results from the solvent-based separation demonstrated that in most cases, the anti-proliferative effect can be partitioned to small fractions of the starting total weight. We are commencing clinical trials with selected aqueous herbal extracts (e.g. Ban Zhi Lian) and also continuing efforts to isolate novel molecules with activity against human breast cancer. Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.