Ji-Hong Jhu (朱紀洪, Hospital President, M.D./surgeon) and Huey-Kong Sytwu (司徒惠康, M.D., Ph.D.) at the National Defense University Hospital. The investigators will then study the molecular signaling effect of specific phytocompounds already identified to confer in vivo (mouse), anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory activities, in primary/organoid cultures of human breast tumor cells under ex vivo conditions. Finally, the investigators intend to identify the key molecular regulators, immune-modulatory effectors of test stromal immune cells that are affected by the candidate phytomedicines, using molecular and cell biology assays to investigate the interplay between immune cells and tumor cells in the stromal tissues.
Our study is expected to reveal one or more highly specific, anti-inflammatory phytocompounds that mechanistically confer specific effects on stromal fibroblast or immune cell types, resulting in potent anti-tumor effects on test mammary carcinoma systems. Five Specific Aims are thus designed to investigate the immuno-modulating effects of specific medicinal constituents from TCM materials. The experimental findings obtained from this study would provide insights in the molecular, cellular and signaling mechanisms/effects of several medicinal phytocompounds that may have potential applications in chemoprevention or herbal medicine adjuvant treatment of human breast cancers.
