A Comparison of the Cytotoxic Effects of Vernonia amygdalina and Paclitaxel on Estrogen Receptor Positive Breast Cancer Cells

Cancer is best described as a set of diseases in which normal cells escape the control mechanisms that regulate growth and development in humans. There are many types of cancers but we will focus on ductal carcinomas and lobular carcinomas, or commonly known as breast cancer. Breast cancer is the second in cancer related deaths of women in the United States. Why breast cancer occurs is not yet fully understood but there are a variety of contributing factors known. Cancer treatment includes chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormone therapy and surgery. These treatments may cause undesirable side effects in patients, and therefore, improvements are necessary to better treatment outcomes and life quality. Previous studies have shown that extracts from the native Nigerian edible plant Vernonia amygdalina (VA) possess anti-proliferative effects before cancerous cells with estrogen receptors (ER+). Paclitaxel (TAX) is also very aggressive on cancerous cells but it can also damage healthy cells. The objective of this research is to use Trypan Blue, MTT 3-(4,5-dimethythiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide and Thymidine Incorporation (3[H]-thymidine) in vitro assays to assess and compare in detail the effects of VA and TAX combined and by themselves on MCF-7 breast cancer cells to determine cell proliferation and viability.