THE ESSENTIAL
- 85% of breast cancers are hormone-dependent (estrogen and/or progesterone receptors) or HER2-positive (HER2 is an overexpressed protein on the cell surface).
- 15% of breast cancers are said to be “triple negative”, because there is an absence of hormone receptors and HER2.
Cardamom is a herbaceous plant native to India. This spice can be used both as a condiment and as a remedy. Because yes, it contains multiple virtues. As proof: this aromatic and vegetable substance would make it possible to overcome triple negative breast cancer. This was revealed by researchers from the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (United States) during the presentation of their study at the annual meeting of the American Physiological Society (APS), in Philadelphia, as part of the conference Experimental Biology 2022.
Consuming cardamom ‘may be beneficial to health’
“It has been difficult to develop a targeted therapy for triple-negative breast cancer that is both safe and effective. For this reason, it is absolutely necessary to study herbal medicines as a new way to fight this cancer” , said Patricia Mendonca, author of the study, in a statement. “The fact that cardamom has been used for centuries as a spice and more recently as a supplement shows that its consumption is safe and can provide health benefits,” she added.
For the purposes of their work, the scientists analyzed the cells of Caucasian and African-American women with triple-negative cancer. The authors’ objective was to observe how cardamom affected the expression of the Ligand-1 (PD-L1) gene, responsible for programmed cell death, which is found in tumor cells. In patients with triple-negative breast cancer, PD-L1 is overexpressed, allowing cancer cells to evade the body’s immune system.
Cardamom targets a gene that helps cancer cells evade the immune system
Researchers found that cardamom consumption decreased the ability of cancer cells to survive in both Caucasian patients and African American women. The impact of the spice depended on the dose used by the scientists. According to the results, cardamom also reduced the expression of the PD-L1 gene only in the cell line of the Caucasian participants. “This is the first study to describe the inhibitory effect of cardamom on the expression of the PD-L1 gene. It shows that the spice has potential to improve cancer treatment without having as many side effects as the other chemotherapeutic agents”, said Patricia Mendonca.