ASSESSMENT OF THE BIOACTIVITY OF THE SELECTED INDIGENOUS TREATMENT MODALITIES IN CANCER PATIENTS  WITH CANCERS 

Cancer is the leading cause of death and western medicine is still struggling to control the  mortality and morbidity of cancer cases. There are several traditional medicines that have been used to treat cancer for years. However, these medicines have not been tested for their  mechanism of action. The objective of the present study was to reveal the anti-cancer  properties of selected indigenous treatment modalities in cancer patients. This research has  been conducted at the Cancer clinic of the Bandaranaike Memorial Ayurvedic Research  Institute (BMARI) Navinna, Sri Lanka. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Ethics Review Committee of the Institute of Indigenous Medicine, University of Colombo Sri Lanka (ERC No: 15/46). The patients attending the cancer clinic were included in this study after obtaining their proper consent. Cancers were diagnosed and confirmed by proper history taking, clinical examinations, and relevant investigations. After the proper screening, thirty patients were selected for the study with the age of patients ranging from 20 to 80 years in both sexes. All trial drugs were manufactured according to the standard procedures in the pharmacy section of BMARI. The patients were divided into two groups viz Group A and Group B. Group A patients obtained SG powder, KY powder, and A1 powder. Group B patients obtained C1 powder and IM powder. The blood was collected at the beginning of treatment, 45th day and 90th day for the tumor marker expressions and  cytokine expressions (IL-2, IL-5, IL-17, Gamma IFN and PUMA). Fourteen different cancer types were observed in this study and ten patients were included in Group A and twenty patients were included in Group B. In Group A, dominant cancer type was Colo-rectal carcinoma. In Group B the dominant cancer types were Adenocarcinoma of the prostate, Papillary urothelial carcinoma and Colorectal carcinoma. The Tumor sizes were notably decreased in breast cancer in Group A and cervical carcinoma, papillary urothelial carcinoma, spindle cell carcinoma and bronchial carcinoma in Group B. Tumour marker expressions were greatly decreased in two Adenocarcinoma of prostate cancer patients and one patient of Colorectal carcinoma in Group A. However, tumour marker expressions were decreased two patients of  Adenocarcinoma of Prostate and two patients of Colorectal carcinoma. In Group A, IL 2 expression was increased in seven patients, IL-5 expression was elevated in nine patients, IL-17 expression was increased in five patients, Gamma Interferon was increased in eight patients PUMA expression was boosted in four patients. In Group B, IL-2 expression was elevated in twelve patients, IL-5 expression was increased in ten patients, IL-17 expression  was increased in eleven patients, Gamma Interferon expression was increased in four  patients and PUMA expression was boosted in nine patients. The bioactive components of  these medicinal plants of both treatment modalities have contained anti-inflammatory,  Antioxidant, and Anti-proliferative properties, which have supported to the findings of this  study. This study identified a possible immune network that supports to control the tumor  development and spreading. Evaluation of the two different treatment modalities by  histopathological findings in order to confirm the prognosis is to be done in future world. Further investigations are required to evaluate the mechanism of effectiveness of these two  treatment modalities in the management of individual types of cancers.