BACKGROUND: Honey has been shown to have anti-cancer effects, but the mechanism behind these effects is not fully understood. We investigated the role of Malaysian jungle Tualang honey (TH) in modulating the hematological parameters, estrogen, estrogen receptors (ER1) and pro and anti-apoptotic proteins expression in induced breast cancer in rats.
METHODS: Fifty nulliparous female Sprague-Dawley rats were used and grouped as follows: Group 0 (healthy normal rats control), Group 1 (negative control; untreated rats), Groups 2, 3 and 4 received daily doses of 0.2, 1.0 and 2.0 g/kg body weight of TH, respectively. The rats in groups 1, 2, 3, 4 were induced with 80 mg/kg of 1-methyl-1-nitrosourea (MNU). TH treatment in groups 2, 3 and 4 was started one week prior to tumor induction and continued for 120 days.
RESULTS: The TH-treated rats had tumors of different physical attributes compared to untreated negative control rats; the tumor progression (mean 75.3 days versus 51.5 days); the incidence (mean 76.6% versus 100%); the multiplicity (mean 2.5 versus 4 tumor masses per rat); the size of tumor mass (mean 0.41 cm versus 1.47 cm [p
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